Cavendish Drive residents grabbed some essentials before being forced out of their flooding homes this morning as rains continued to pour down.
The flooding has affected properties along Cavendish between Weybridge Court and Faversham Avenue.
Enbridge Gas and Burlington Hydro have cut utilities to those properties as their basements are flooded waist-high in some occasions, while patio doors on the main level were shattered as the flooding built up against them.
Residents report sewage backing up out of their toilets, and rushing in, even on main floors.
Alexandre Lemelin, who lives near 2056 Cavendish Dr. said the rain was up to his waist in the basement today. He said he will be staying with relatives in Mississauga tonight, and doesn’t know when the house will be liveable again. A pool in the back yard has become an infinity pool.
Residents at the scene said a berm at the top of Highway 407 – their properties back onto the toll highway – has given way leaving rising, quickly- flowing water along Rambo Creek nowhere to go.
A stretch of Cavendish Road, at the Rambo Creek crossing remains under water as the sunshine started to come out this afternoon.
Vicki Diciccio said she’s never seen anything like this before. She rescued her widowed neighbour this morning, as the flooded creek poured water into her home. The woman had to race out to get cat carriers from her vet to save her pets. When she returned home, the water was heading up the stairs. She scrambled to get the cats into carriers, grab some food for them, and then she started to grab her personal belongings.
Diciccio told her she had to get out now. “I realized later I was shouting, but I told her she needs to get her things - her medications - and get going,” she said, adding that she’s safe now.
Others said their basements are ruined as anything they had downstairs is now floating in sewage water. They said they've lost everything from family photos and mementos to furniture and appliances.
Diciccio said the City of Burlington was on scene on Monday afternoon, but was nowhere to be seen today.
The resident at 2062 just finished basement renovations, totaling in the 10s of thousand of dollars, with everything fully submerged in water now.
Everyone in the area who had swimming pools showed photos of what remained - all you could see was a slide. The pools are all underwater.
Water is halfway up the fences of most of the properties near the creek.
Residents shared that they don’t know if they can even rebuild there’s so much damage.
“Is the pool even salvageable?” Lemelin wondered. “I don’t know if we can even save the foundation because there's so much water in the house.”
