Enduring Rain Events

We were most certainly inconvenienced by last Friday's incessant rain, the heavy downpour that simply did not want to subside. And when it finally did, it was for the briefest of opportunities for us to venture, late in the afternoon, out into the ravine for a short jaunt. We set out in a light drizzle and returned in a more robust rain, not yet up to full strength but not long in the realization, once we set foot into our nice dry (humid) house again.

The ravine, of course, like the grounds upon which sit the house in which we live, was completely sodden. Not only puddles on the trails, but emerging lakes on either side of the trails, with muddy water gushing down the length of the creek, and all the tributaries in the ravine which are normally dry at this time of year, echoing the activity of the mother-stream. The following day we enjoyed hours of sunshine before the rain returned.

We have not been discommoded at all. We do not, in fact, miss the really hot weather that seems to have bypassed us this year. We aren't too unsettled about all the rain. We haven't had to water anything in the gardens and our garden pots this year; nature has done all that for us, most handsomely, if rather to excess. There has been no need to use home air conditioners this summer, floor fans do quite nicely.

Yet there are, not all that far away from where we live - the opposite end of the city in fact - hundreds of homeowners who have suffered the dismay of seeing their basements begin to fill up with floodwater, insects, detritus and sewage. Many of these homeowners know their insurance will not reimburse them for their losses. And many do have quite substantial losses; furniture, electronics, rugs, and other belongings that cannot be saved.

Public roads have been washed out and traffic diverted to other areas. We're informed that in some parts of the city up to 105 mm of rain came down on Friday. The Ottawa River received rainwater mixed with sewage over a two-day period, because the waste water treatment plant was bypassed due to the heavy carriage of rainwater, some 175,000 cubic metres representing about 40% of a typical summer's rain.

Area farmers are bemoaning the lack of summer sun to help crops dry out between rains that have inundated their vegetables. While we have enjoyed some sun, it is not representative of the amount of sun we normally have at this time of year, and which crops depend upon to ensure growth and adequate maturation. Instead, there is the real, looming danger of crops not coming to maturation and in fact, rotting.

That's the larger picture and it isn't a very good one, overall.