150 mm of rain pound Barrie ON

[tropicana]

Barrie, Ont.
Thu June 9th 2005
— Cars floated free of their parking spots and water spewed from sink drains Thursday after intense rains in this central Ontario city led to flash flooding that took only a few hours to drain away. Barrie is about 2 hours drive north of Toronto.

Between 100 and 150 millimetres of rain fell in the area in a very short period of time, Environment Canada said.

“They are looking at local flooding in parts of the Barrie area and sometimes up to the tops of the roofs of some vehicles,” Environment Canada's Geoff Coulson told TV station CP24.

Water was pumping out of sinks in Bayfield Mall, said Bernetta McLelland, a spokeswoman for the mall.
“It was clean water -- it wasn't sewer water backing up,” Ms. McLellan said. “We've now brought a company in squeegeeing ... the floors dry.”

Cars in part of the mall parking lot “ended up being up to their windows in water,” she said.
Most of the water was gone in a few hours, Ms. McLellan said.

Police closed roads because of flooding and said some country roads were washed out.
“It's just a massive amount of water coming down,” said Barrie police Sergeant Dennis Vaillancourt.

There were no reports of serious injuries from the storm, which also brought damaging winds and large hail.

Day-care provider Sandra Basler said she cowered with her young charges as hail pelted her north-end house and trees leaned in the severe wind.
“From 2 p.m. to 2:20 I was pretty worried,” Ms. Basler said.

The afternoon storm was part of an eastward storm cell which developed over King City.
“It's not a question of one thunderstorm ... but a regeneration” that continued to pelt the same area, Mr. Coulson said.

The storm hit just days after residents of Barrie marked the 20th anniversary of a tornado that killed 11 and injured 155.
The storm tore through Barrie on May 31, 1985, and environmental scientists have said the province is overdue for another major tornado.