Flooding Issues

Gaelic

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Apr 15, 2008
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#1
Not sure if this is the right place for this thread, but hey...I'll give it a whirl, I'm new here so be kind ;)

My hubby and I just moved to the Beach. So far, it's been great. Except for the VERY wet weather this summer. We have a basement - a short one, but albeit - a basement. Our sump pump has been working overtime! However, I live on a street that appears to flood down at the dead end portion every time it rains. I feel for the people down there - not sure if they have basements, but it can't be nice to come home to a lake in your front yard every rainy day. Hubby keeps joking he's going to take the canoe down there.

So yesterday we come home to a flyer stuffed in our mailbox about a meeting today with an MPP about the flooding issue.

Unfortunately - the meeting is TODAY at 3:30 and I cannot attend. I would have, had I been given more than one days notice. The issue does not affect me directly but it does affect my neighbours and - well - there is power in numbers.

So my question is this - how long has this been an issue? Do people have house damage because of this? I'm in the dark so any info at all would be appreciated. :)

Thanks!
 

scotto

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#2
Hi Gaelic;
I also live on one of those side streets and most of us on my street don't have basements, so flooding problem isn't as big of an issue as for those that do.
Still it isn't nice to have water sitting at the end of the street.

The flooding has been around for a long time, however it just hasn't been evident in recent years because of low lake levels. It is much harder to get rid of the rain water when the lake levels are high because to end of the sidestreets are low and close to lake levels. To add to this problem when it's not raining (which doesn't happen much this year) many residents are pumping out their basement and that collect at the end as well.
The City has plans to build a pumping station at the end of Grafton Ave. and hopefully this will clear up the flooding problem when it rains. I don't know how effective it be for high lakes levels like we seen back in the 80's, I guess will see, if that ever happens again.
For more info on the pumping station, check these threads..
http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=975

http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1178

I also recieved that letter yesterday, but this person also was around a couple weeks ago and did put the same memo in mailboxes, he must of missed you on that day.

Here is a coply of the letter..

M.TO.
(Ministry of Transportation)
STOP FLOODING OUR HOMES!!



As you are aware, for many years there has been an ongoing problem of flooding on certain portions of the Beach Strip and in particular, the streets ofArden Ave., GranvileAve., Graflon Ave. and Wickham Ave.

The drainage pipes at the end of each street are designed to channel the excess water away from our streets and divert it under the Skyway Bridge to the bay area. They are not working and are collapsed and plugged up. The M.TO. have been aware of this issue for years, yet there has been NO ACTION on their part to reme4v this problem.

The City of Hamilton work crews have made valiant efforts to remove this flood water using small portable pumps, with limited success. The City has devoted hundreds of man-hours and equipment, fuel and resources to alleviate a situation that we believe, is a problem at the Provincial level.

Even if your own house has not been affected, you are still paying with your property tax dollars to fund a band-aid solution. Our property tax dollars are being wasted every day, when we believe the REAL PROBLEMS of the drainage need to be addressed once and for all!!

A meeting with our local M.P.P has been called for:

DATE

August 21, 2008 @ 3:30p.m.
LOCATION
Office of Paul Miller, M.EP
9 Lake Ave. South (corner of Lake Ave. & King St.)
Stoney Creek 905-545-0114


WE URGE YOU To MAKE A SPECIAL
EFFORT TO ATTEND THIS MEETING
For more info, call Brian Smiley (289)396-0540
<bsmiley@cogeco. ca>
 

scotto

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#3
I forgot to add a few pictures of the street flooding, these are after a heavy rain.
The last one shows that the sidestreets aren't the only place on the Beach that have water problems after it rains.
 

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Gaelic

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Apr 15, 2008
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#4
Thanks for the info, Scotto. So it appears the pumping station will be located right at the end of my street (Grafton Ave.).

Very interesting.
 

scotto

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#5
Thanks for the info, Scotto. So it appears the pumping station will be located right at the end of my street (Grafton Ave.).

Very interesting.
Gaelic;
Thanks for the post,:rock: sounds like your street will benefit most from this project. But again, I don't know how well it will handle high lake levels, hopefully the engineers have it all worked out.
 

Gaelic

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Apr 15, 2008
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#6
Exactly how high did the lake get in the '80's? lol.

I know we have high water marks in our basement. Just wondering how well the washer and dryer will do, floating ;)

We have decided it is a bad spot to put down carpeting, lol.
 

scotto

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#7
Guess I should get my decades right, the worst in recent memory was in the 70's, I have attached a Spec picture from 73 showing what Comet Ave looked like.
If you want to go back to the old days, check out the pictures in this thread, these were sent in by member Crawfish, you wouldn't want a basement on that street.
http://hamiltonbeachcommunity.com/forum/showthread.php?t=358

And yes, basement carpeting on the sidestreets is a bad idea.
 

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Roberta

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May 29, 2008
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#8
My husband and I were down checking out our empty Andrin Homes property when that huge storm hit - I thought we were going to drown on the road! It is terribly dangerouse driving through some of those large pools of water on the road. I feel terrible for the people who live on the ends of the streets that are flooding! I'm hopeing that we dont have too many issues on the Andrin property!
 

scotto

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#9
My husband and I were down checking out our empty Andrin Homes property when that huge storm hit - I thought we were going to drown on the road! It is terribly dangerouse driving through some of those large pools of water on the road. I feel terrible for the people who live on the ends of the streets that are flooding! I'm hopeing that we dont have too many issues on the Andrin property!
The lake level is much higher this year than has been in a long time, the Andrin people left last fall thinking than they would be building full steam ahead come spring. I don't think they were expecting all that water. Since than they have raised the street level up considerably, I don't know how many dump truck of soil it took, but it was very noticable to see so many trucks on the blvd. Yes, hopefully they can build around all that water and shows that it's just not the sidestreets, but many other sections of the Beach are being impacted as well.
 

BFD

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Mar 30, 2005
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Burlington
#11
Has flooding ever been an issue for any of the homes on the bay side with Beach Blvd addresses? I've seen it get bad by the Dynes but not sure if it's an issue for any homeowners who live on Beach Blvd.
 

scotto

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#12
Has flooding ever been an issue for any of the homes on the bay side with Beach Blvd addresses? I've seen it get bad by the Dynes but not sure if it's an issue for any homeowners who live on Beach Blvd.
None that I know of. Even though basements are not permited when building, if you can get the neighbours to state that they haven't had problems, the Committee of Adjustment will allow it. For a price.
The end of the sidestreets are quite a bit lower than the blvd in most spots.
 

scotto

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#14
sue; Sorry somehow I missed this one, the Beach did get a soaking from this storm, but I didn't hear of anyone getting impacted anymore than usual. Councillor Collins did call and asked if there were any issues.
 
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