U of T is drying out after record breaking rainfall on Monday evening. “Caution Floor Slippery When Wet Signs” seem to be in almost every building, as facilities staff continue the clean up. Flooding, water damage, and electricity outages have been scattered across the campuses.
UTM lost power following the storm, but power has now been restored to the campus. At about 7 o’clock am on July 9, U of T Mississauga tweeted “Campus is open and operating as usual.”
The buildings hit hardest on the St. George campus include the OISE Library, New College, Trinity College, The Munk School, Hart House, and Sidney Smith. Many staff and students found themselves stranded and wet after a deluge of water caused flash floods across the city. Most of the damage and flooding was caused by backed up drains that could not keep up with the excess water, with reports of over 100 mm of rain in one hour.
The storm exacerbated issues with commuting and the transit system. As summer student Veronica Hortiguela, pointed out “It’s pretty sad that we only have three subway lines and most of them were down. It shows the flaws in our transit system. It was definitely a more drastic storm because the whole subways system doesn’t usually have to shut down. I just think I would be more forgiving of times like this if they weren’t as many delays on a regular basis, but it was an exciting plot twist in my day.” Shuttle bus service at UTM was also disrupted.
Many students and staff found themselves stranded or delayed as subway lines were shut down and buses and streetcars were overcrowded and delayed. The day porter at Trinity College tells her story of being stranded because of transit closures: “I had to stay at Trinity…because there was no electricity and no subways and the cabs were not running. I literally had no choice”
Hart House
At Hart House, damage is minor though flooding was common. The flooding mainly occurred in the basement. Aaron Liu, a Front Desk Assistant at Hart House, said that because Hart House is built on Taddle Creek, “It’s quite common here. Whenever there is a big rainstorm, the drains will back up. The Theatre got 4 inches of water, the archery range flooded, and the basement dark rooms had backed up drains. Everything is back to normal now.” Helen Lloyd Lead Hand at the Hart House Fitness Centre said that the storm is “something to talk about, it’s sort of exciting. Nothing ever happens at the gym, we get no excitement other than the occasional basketball injury. Everyone was talking about it all day.”
OISE
OISE experienced water damage and flooding on its fourth floor, that leaked into the third floor of the library, as well as flooding in the library concourse level. The concourse level has been closed off completely since Monday evening and parts of the third level are currently blocked off. One of the student library assistants, Elaine Gillis, was trapped in an elevator for roughly an hour. Elaine explained, “I went down to the basement to check on the flooding…the elevator was still moving but the doors wouldn’t open and then the fire alarm went off. We’ve had that elevator get stuck once before, but it’s really abnormal. I was stuck for at least an hour.”
Sidney Smith Hall
Various labs in Sidney Smith experienced flooding and water damage. Associate professor Geoff MacDonald describes the effect on the MacDonald Pyschology Lab. “Fortunately there were people in most of the labs and people were able to move equipment out of the way. Other than ceiling tiles nothing was damaged. If it had happened in the middle of the night, there would have been more damage. Students were able protect the equipment in most of the labs. This is abnormal, we do have some humidity and temperature problems in this building but we’ve never had water damage in here before. The thing that I am most worried about is the wet carpets and the humidity problems together, I’m worried about mold. We’re hoping the carpets will get replaced.”
New College
New College Residence buildings had inches of water in its basement and some water leakage into various rooms on its east side. Office of Residence and Student Life assistant Cameron McBurney said that they managed to avert a crisis because of quick response by the caretaking staff and administration. “We’ve got a great facilities team. It was a little exciting for a bit there, and now we’re good to go. I think for all of these major emergencies you do what you can and now that this has happened once we know which areas to check in the future.” New College has recently undergone renovations to its drainage system, and McBurney stresses that this made a huge difference in limiting the damage. Flood warnings were issued, but McBurney points out that that is not necessarily an indication that things were serious. “If you need more than a mop you might need a different title other than ‘minor flooding.’ So, that’s probably why you hear stories like “New College was floating away,” but the reality is it was not that serious.”
Trinity College/Munk School
Trinity College experienced broken windows and water in its basement, with water inches deep in certain places, because of the backup of the drainage system and pumps that failed. The force of the water cracked windows in the basement.
Flooding also occurred in the Larkin Building, George Ignatieff Theatre, and on the north side of the Munk School. Today Facilities staff were replacing windows and contractors were pumping out water. As Trinity College’s director of facility services, Tim Connelly, pointed out, “Many of [the] staff had there own things to deal with, flooding basements, and were late or unable to come in. So, it’s just about getting people in, but we manage. We’ve developed relationships with contractors, so they’re here when we need them.”
Cameron McBurney from New College summed up his thoughts on the situation. “I think for all of these major emergencies, you do everything that you can, patience is always helpful. You can’t plan you can’t create a system for something you haven’t seen in 60 years, right. To a certain extent we are okay, this is nothing like what they saw in Alberta, we handled it pretty well.”
