Dear editor:

You have published some interesting accounts of flooding this summer, but let’s get real here.

Global weather weirding is happening everywhere. Scientists have been telling us for decades that this was going to happen.

A 100-year event? Maybe looking back, but certainly not looking forward.

Look at all the parts of the world facing years of drought, Morocco and Namibia, for starters. Look at Florida getting flooded so much that it’s hard to get insurance any more.

Wind, rain and drought. It’s not going away unless, of course, you don’t believe in any of it. But it’s hard to ignore, isn’t it?

Look at Toronto and all the flooding there. From all accounts it’s much worse there than what we’ve experienced here.

Let’s consider whose “fault” it is that we are getting flooding. Is it the local government or the people who denied this could happen and so didn’t do anything?

Generations who didn’t do anything to curb it or prepare for it? Is it the people who built houses in flood plains or at the bottom of hills? Or the governments that let them do it?

I could go on and on. There is really no point in looking back and blaming because we are all guilty of inaction and now we just have to deal with it.

Governments simply do not have enough money to make it all perfect again — and that’s everyone’s money by the way.

There will be flooding. Things have changed. Who knew (despite all the warnings) that weather weirding would affect our little town?

When you have a small budget you spend it only where you must and flooding wasn’t a big occurrence before. As a matter of fact, the records are not accurate here and no one knows where the water in some of the culverts flows.

Those are the idiosyncracies of small towns and rural areas. We have a lot of work to do. God knows how much work Toronto has in front of it to address its flooding problems. It’s a mess.

The big problem is no money, so it’s going to take a while.

That being said we were flooded in July of last year for the same reason. While we were trapped inside the candy store on Queen Street with our three grandkids for 90 minutes, we had a month’s worth of rain.

Meanwhile, our entire basement was filling up with about six inches of water (thankfully no sewage — we have a back flow valve and everyone should). We had just finished a year of renovations.

Everything permanent gets ripped out to 24 inches above the ground, plus there’s the damage to the contents. Huge fans are brought in and run for about a week.

Your enemy is mould, so the floor goes unless it’s ceramic. So does all your drywall and insulation, plus the furnace and water heater because they are compromised.

We knew we had a problem and that it would happen again if we didn’t fix it. We redirected the water flow from our driveway and garage away from the house and had drains installed. In the summer of 2024, we had no flooding. Maybe we fixed it — for now.

Jackie Bonic
NOTL