Town of Tecumseh hit hard by Friday storm

London, Ont — The Town of Tecumseh and the surrounding areas experienced a significant weather event on Friday, with parts of the town experiencing up to 90mm of rain over a 27-hour period.

This resulted in surface ponding in low lying areas, roadways and private properties at various locations. 150 calls and emails were made to the City by property owners.

At the peak of the storm it registered just shy of a 1:50 Year Storm Event, says members with the City.

City officials add that storm and sanitary pumps, stations, have been in operation.

Public Works staff along with the Ontario Clean Water Agency have been on site.

“This was a significant rainfall event with high volumes that fell in a short period of time,” said Gary McNamara, Mayor.

“Storm systems are normally designed to accommodate a 1:2 or a 1:5-year storm event, depending on the infrastructure. Once the rainfall event has exceeded the system design it is anticipated to experience road and parking lot flooding until such time that the drains, sewers and pump stations can catch up.”

The Town has arranged for temporary changes to the normal Waste Collection by means of:

(i) Scheduling a special flood debris pick-up for Monday July 19, 2021 for those residences impacted by the rain event; and

(ii) Temporary changes to the Town’s Waste Collection to accept bags of waste in addition to the hard-sided containers on the regularly scheduled collection date of Thursday July 22, 2021.

“We have heard from a number of residents requesting assistance from the Town with the disposal of flood debris,” said Gary McNamara, Mayor of Tecumseh in a release.

“We reached out to Green For Life (GFL) and scheduled the additional service that will help alleviate some of the impact on residents during this time.”

The Town is requesting that any flood debris be placed in hard sided containers or garbage bags if possible.