| Thaw, freeze, makes for chilling time on
streets |
| By Morgan Ian Adams and Raymond Bowe |
| Enterprise-Bulletin (Tue, February 13, 2000) |
| COLLINGWOOD - Dramatically shifting temperatures put the
town's works department on the hot seat this weekend. |
| Nearly 30 centimetres of snow earlier in the week, combined
with several centimetres of rain and a 20-degree upward shift in
temperatures made for flooded roads and flooded basements on Friday. |
| There were also widespread reports of flooding in Wasaga
Beach. |
| The heavily affected area includes the west-end of Wasaga
Beach, where most houses are built in low-lying areas. |
| "A lot of the water is coming down on the south side
of Hwy. 26," said Jim McIntosh, public works director for the
town. "We try and keep all of the drains open, but as it get
warm again and then cold, they tend to ice up." |
| The flooding is not extremely deep, but wet carpets are wet
carpets, joked McIntosh. |
| "If there is another thaw, we'll get more
flooding," said McIntosh, "But our main drains are all
open." |
| Collingwood's works department head Ed Houghton said
employees worked 'round-the-clock,' from Friday until Sunday to clean up
the mess. |
| We had one heck of a pile of storm water." he said,
Monday. |
| Collingwood OPP officers were also kept busy, according to
Senior Const. Russ Stockdale. |
| Officers investigated a number of minor accidents on the
weekend - mostly at intersections - as wet roads turned to skating rinks
when temperatures returned to the more-seasonal sub-zero levels of -10
Celsius, or lower. |
| Houghton noted trouble spots tended to be in the lower
areas of town; the east end, Katherine Street and Campbell Street. A
section of Hwy 26 East, in front of United Rentals (former Blue Mountain
Rentals) became submerged, and when the provincial contractor managing
that section of road failed to show, town staff worked to clear away the
water. |
| Town staff were also kept busy clearing away plugged water
courses, along with storm sewers and waste water sewers. |
| "With the rain from the fall, the ground was just
saturated, and this water just sat on top of it," Houghton said. |
|
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