A record-shattering Toronto storm has left hundreds of thousands without power, flooded subway stations, transformed bustling urban streets into lakes, and brought reptilian visitors onto commuter trains.
One hundred twenty-six millimeters (just under five inches) of rain was recorded at Pearson International Airport on Monday – the most rainfall Toronto has received in a single day,
CFRB Radio in Toronto reported. The downpour, which fell in a two-hour period Monday night, was approximately the same amount of rain Toronto usually receives during the entire month of July.
At the height of the storm on Monday, at least 300,000 homes and businesses were without power in Canada’s largest city. Subways were shut down, and Toronto police and firefighters needed to use inflatable boats to rescue trapped commuters from a double-decker train that stalled in floodwaters that reached lower windows. Water spilled through the train’s bottom floor, forcing passengers to flee to upper decks.
Commuters spent most of the evening trying to stay dry while waiting in sweltering humidity for rescuers to arrive.
Ben Bahreini, one of about 1,400 passengers on the train, used his cell phone to take a picture of a snake slivering over the water surface on the train’s lower level. Bahreini was rescued from the train at 11 P.M., but the last passenger wasn’t rescued until 12:30 A.M. Tuesday – roughly seven hours after the commuter train began its journey from downtown, according to
CBC News.
Passengers described seeing commuters clinging to trees after abandoning their vehicles on a flooded highway alongside the tracks, the Associated Press reported.
As crews in the Toronto area cleaned up Tuesday, forecasters said more rain could be on the way Tuesday night, with torrential downpours hail and wind. Local power companies planned rolling blackouts in an effort to conserve energy,
the Toronto Star reported.
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