Marine Rescue had to get people out of that stranded GO train. I’m pretty sure that’s a first.
If this sort of thing is going to become regular, we’re gonna need storm drains the size of subway tunnels. Or to put all the buildings on stilts.
It likely is. And now you’ve got me wondering–who or what is Toronto’s Marine Rescue unit organized under–Toronto Police, Toronto FD, or some other agency?
I was surprised, when on vacation to Calgary years ago, to find that the Calgary fire department had a marine unit. In the summer, people like to raft or ride inner tubes down the Bow River, and Calgary FD (Marine) is there to keep them safe. So (because I’m curious) my question, Sunspace, or other knowledgeable Toronto Dopers, is this: who looks after marine rescue in Toronto?
It’s part of the police:
http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/marine/
Thanks, Sunspace! Appreciate the info!
If you’re referring to that online Star picture of the alleged Gardiner Expressway, no, the caption was wrong. The picture was of the road beneath it.
No, I recognized the Lakeshore well enough. There was another picture of the Gardiner itself with enough water on it to have significant waves.
A thought I had last night -
Bad things happening in Alberta, Quebec, Toronto - three areas of Canada which some Canadians ordinarily love to hate. But recently, in these times of crisis, there seems to be, instead of hatred, a lot of support from all across Canada for affected regions.
I’m thinking that Canada is kind of like a family. We may seem to hate each other sometimes, but underneath, we really care about our fellow Canadians.
My home is on stilts.
The amazing thing is this morning it all appears normal. Other than some washed out sections of track that will take longer to repair GO is up and running, only two service issues on the TTC related to flooding (well if you don’t count elevators out of service, I’m not sure if that is flooding related or not) and my husband reports that traffic was perfectly normal this morning.
We had a 6 hour power outage which kind of sucked but considering the pictures I saw last night that’s amazing in itself. When my husband was driving home, north on the 427, water was flowing OVER the top of the 4’ concrete barrier from the southbound lanes in one spot. Unreal amounts of water.
Disasters - natural or otherwise - are what Canadians do best. It practically defines us. 
It’s called Aquatic Rescue in Calgary and is one of the specialty teams (along with HAZMAT and the airport crews). There are surface rescue guys and divers. My husband is one of the divers.
Burrell (the Fire Chief) is trying to get rid of the team, unfortunately. He, for some reason, doesn’t see the value of the specialty.
Allegedly, more water was dumped on Toronto yesterday than was dumped by Hurricane Hazel back in the 1950s, which caused a disaster still remembered to this day.
The fun part: more rain is on the way!
I found this before and after photo of Lac Mégantic, pointing out all the landmarks that have been lost. It’s chilling.
That’s disturbing. Horrid.
Got the files and electrics up off the office floor. Time to go post the practice cancellation notice on the Canoe Club door. Forecast for severe thunderstorms with large hail, damaging winds or heavy rainfall . . . . large hail, damaging wind gusts and torrential downpours." The metal roof on my home will make for a rather noisy evening.
From this article in the Huffington Post,
Really?
My department’s Lac Megantic Service Canada Centre has gone into emergency mode to handle all the extra people needing federal government help in the aftermath of the disaster - everything from EI claims for all the people whose jobs have disappeared in flames to forwarding death notices to all the other parts of the government. To complicate this, the office is normally located in building number 5 in the above photos - they are currently operating in the local high school.
The building next to No 9 in the photos is the local fire department!
Holy crap.
{{{shivers}}}
I’m gonna say, there probably should be.
Or, as Jim says, that falls under the same category as, “The City of Calgary has no right to inspect the rail bridges that run through Calgary.” I.E. the railroads are kind of a law unto themselves.