Fish washed onto the driveway and geese swam past them after floodwater swallowed an animal rescue farm in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Four sheep, two goats and two pigs had to be rushed from their pens at the Line 6 farm, which belongs to Vaughn and Lauren Goettler, Tuesday morning.
Almost six inches of rain (146.26 millimetres) fell between 11:30 p.m. Monday and 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. Virgil dealt with the worst of what the town called an “exceptionally significant, highly localized rainfall event,” but flooded basements, roads and farm fields were reported across Niagara-on-the-Lake.
“Our sheep pasture and pen were underwater, so they had to be moved out, and the goats were also underwater and they had to be moved out, and the pigs,” Lauren said.
Horses and cows stayed in their soggy pasture, while the ducks appeared to enjoy the new surroundings.
“The ducks were happy.”
The scramble began after a creek beside the property overflowed into its pond, sending water across the farm. The couple also found a few inches of water in the basement.
“But mostly, it was the displacement of the animals,” Lauren said. “The farm — it was just underwater.”
“It was a quick, ‘What can we do? We have to move them. We have to, you know, quick, get them out of there,’” she said.
Vaughn, who is running for lord mayor in this fall’s municipal election, said the town needs to plan infrastructure before approving more development.
“I think there are several issues that we’re dealing with. One of them is an aging infrastructure,” he said.
“In my opinion, the infrastructure should be developed ahead of building projects, not afterwards, because then it becomes an ad hoc approach to infrastructure, which means if it floods, then try and remediate somehow.”
Despite the damage, all the animals were safe Wednesday.
“Everybody’s making do. We’re all good,” Vaughn said. “But it was a little bit of scrambling to make sure that we had everybody housed so that, you know, any nighttime predators like coyotes or anything didn’t have our animals loose.”
“They’re all better friends now,” he said. “They’re all a little closer together.”
