Warwick declares another emergency after flooding

The term “100-year rainfall” isn’t carrying the same weight for Warwick Township’s mayor, after his rural municipality was hit again with heavy rains and flooding.

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“Do you call it a 100-year rain anymore, or do you just call it a yearly rain?” asked Todd Case.

Not quite 11 months after road-damaging flooding prompted an emergency declaration last Augustanother flood flooded basements and roads in the municipality of about 4,000 on Tuesday.

Case declared an emergency Thursday.

“It might have been a tad worse last year … but very, very comparable,” Case said about Tuesday’s rainfall, describing “a lot of flooded basements, a lot of infrastructure washed away, as far as our roads and drains go.”

Warwick applied for $121,000 in provincial aid from last year’s Aug. 23 storm that dumped 180mm of rain in five hours, and shifted the pavement on Zion Line.

Municipal costs were still being tallied Thursday from Tuesday’s rainfall, said township acting chief administrator Ron Van Horne.

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“Including Highway 402, there were a total of nine roads in the community that were affected,” he said.

“That could be anything from clogged drains amid heavy flooding, to washed out gravel, to (damaged culverts,” he said, adding “we’re still assessing what happened and what the costs are, and what needs to be fixed and prioritizing all of that.”

The township’s $121,000 claim from 2023’s storm is still under review at the provincial level, Van Horne said.

“We haven’t received any money yet,” he said, adding “we are hopeful.”

Many people in the township were just recovering from last year’s storm, only to be hit again, said Case.

“It’s one of those situations where it’s heartbreaking,” he said.

“What this has cost a lot of our local residents when it comes to their own personal buildings.”

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There’s also crop damage to consider, he said, calling the agricultural community Warwick’s engine.

“We have no idea what those damages would be at the end of the day,” he said.

Drainage system improvements in the township were in this year’s budget, and the uptick in intense storm frequency amid climate change hits home that more needs to be done, Case said.

“We do meet all the standards currently by the Province of Ontario,” he said, calling for provincial aid for communities like Warwick to make infrastructure improvements.

“Because small communities like ours just will never have the resources financially to be able to make the improvements that are going to be needed if we’re dealing with things like this every year,” he said.

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A $60,000 township program, introduced after last year’s floodingoffering people grants of up to $3,000 to install backwater valves and disconnect sump pumps from sanitary sewers, has been “very successful,” Van Horn said, noting there’s been renewed interest since Tuesday.

Whether the program will need topping up could be a subject council considers when it next meets, later this month, Case said.

“We are doing things like that and trying to improve our situation and protect our residents the best we can,” he said.

Warwick residents also were eligible for disaster recovery assistance funding from the Municipal Affairs Ministry for private property damage in the wake of last year’s storm.

Similar relief will be sought again, Case said, noting declaring the emergency also allows the township to bypass the typical request-for-proposal process for procurement.

“Just because you don’t have the time,” he said.

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