Scenes from Toronto’s historic summer flooding
Surveying the damage beyond Drake’s mansion
Countless absurd scenes took place across the city following Tuesday’s record-breaking rainfall. We saw cars floating on the Don Valley Parkway, kayakers paddling the road to Cherry Beach, water cascading down the steps at Union Station and buckets catching leaks outside Mayor Olivia Chow’s office. One of the most telling images of wrack and ruin captured muddy water rushing over the gold floors of Drake’s $100-million Bridle Path mansion; the rapper posted a video of the chaos on Instagram with the caption “This better be espresso martini.”
Related: Is Toronto ready for the age of the flood?
The climate crisis is here, and—as a post from one of the world’s richest musicians reminds us—it won’t be sparing anyone. Tuesday’s storms left 167,000 people without power, and the Toronto Fire Service received 1,700 calls for help. As we continue to take stock of the damage, Mayor Chow has said the city is “massively investing in the state of repair so that there is less flooding going forward.”
Below, some snapshots of a soggy city.
And here are some dispatches from Torontonians who were caught in the chaos:
