At least a dozen residents in the Elgin County community of Fingal are attempting to dry out flooded basements and crawl spaces following heavy rain on Sunday. Angie Mailhot is among those who did everything in their power to prevent damage. The basement of her home on Fowler Street was flooded as the rain poured in. “I was back at the back window of the house with the three-foot squeegee, pushing water physically away from the house for 45 minutes, and then I heard the water alarm. Then the basement just started filling with water,” she recalled. It was just before 4 p.m. Not far away, her neighbour, Beck Chapman, was also fighting a losing battle as a lakebed formed in front of his century home. “We just watched it creep closer, and closer, and closer, and closer to the house,” said Chapman. Within minutes, water was in the cellar. “We had water about 10 inches from the floorboards inside. Thankfully, we don’t have a basement,” he said. While Chapman’s home escaped heavy damage, back at Mailhot’s place, an expensive cleanup is underway. As insurance adjustors arrived Tuesday, she told CTV News London she feared it might be pointless to repair her home until a multi-million-dollar infrastructure project is completed a year from now. Her frustration is growing, “Like, we literally can’t finish this job until they’re done out there because the water problem hasn’t been solved.” The Township of Southwold concedes it’s an unfortunate mess, resulting from 4 to 5 inches of rain, or over 100 millimetres, in 12 hours. “Our system within Fingal, nearing the end of its useful life, could not take that kind of storm,” said Director of Infrastructure and Development Aaron Van Oorspronk. Once complete, Van Oorspronk contends the new system will be able to handle four to five times the amount of water as the existing one. But that doesn’t help the current situation. This is why Mailhot wants local governments and the contractor to investigate temporary flood mitigation methods. “We’re smart enough to figure this out. Just get together and figure it out,” said Mailhot. She wonders if the construction project played a part, something the township doubts. “I would expect that we would have localized flooding regardless of whether the construction was ongoing or not,” said Van Oorspronk. But until it’s complete, those living here will fear looming dark clouds. “Because as soon as it rains, if you’re not home, you panic and you come running from wherever you are, wondering what you’re walking into,” said Mailhot.
