Like many Leasiders, I had a flooded basement on Tues., July 16th – one of the wettest days in Toronto’s history. I should have expected it. At least three underground streams flow beneath the community – Walmsley Brook at Bayview and Eglinton; Northlea Stream, originating near Broadway and Hanna; and Cudmore Creek between Sutherland and Moore [see Leaside Life, Sept. 2013]. This, coupled with an aging and overburdened sewer system and proximity to the Don River, makes Leaside one of Toronto’s more flood-prone districts.
Watery Leaside
Flooding and other water-related problems have been common through much of our history. In 1913, the year Leaside became a town, a huge gale washed out a large portion of the roadbed at the Leaside Junction station, causing major train delays. A year later, the young Leaside diarist – Wendell Lawson – recorded that it rained three days straight in late March making roads “terrible” and “frightful” with “thick mud.”
As time passed, things didn’t improve. In March 1928, Millwood Rd. was flooded with over six inches of water, stranding at least four motor cars in a ditch. Bessborough Dr. fared no better. In early November 1937, residents complained to the town council that the street had become so mired in mud that, according to the Toronto Star, “children sank to their knees and autos to their hubcaps.”
One of the worst cases of flooding occurred in March 1942 when intense rainfall caused the Don River to overflow, inundating and isolating the Don Valley Brick Works and halting local train traffic. The following year, another downpour dumped “thousands of tons of water” [Toronto Star, March 17, 1943] onto the city, causing Leaside and East York to report “everybody’s cellar is flooded.”
In addition to specific events, specific places in Leaside also experienced periodic flooding. These included Talbot Park, Sunnybrook Plaza and the Leaside Library. Lorna Krawchuk recalls how whenever it rained hard, the library was often flooded from “rain gushing down the inside basement stairs” [Leaside Life, Nov. 2013]. Leaside resident Mitch Bubulj, who worked part-time at the library in the mid 1970s, likewise remembers “more than once coming to work after school or on a weekend and being told by Mrs. Wilson, one of the librarians, that the basement had flooded in heavy rain and that I needed to mop it up.”
The perils of North Leaside
But the most dramatic examples of flooding and water accumulation took place in North Leaside – particularly in the late 1940s, when many of that area’s houses were being built.
This included one harrowing incident in 1947 involving a two-year old boy who nearly drowned when he fell into the wet and muddy bottom of one of North Leaside’s numerous excavation sites. Only the quick thinking of a passing messenger boy, who pulled him to safety, averted a tragedy. Residents called these sites “death traps” because they often filled with water (despite regular pumping) due to the area’s high-water table.
One year later, North Leaside was again waterlogged following a major deluge that forced several students at Northlea school to come home by rowboat!
And in March 1956, the worst rainstorm to hit Toronto since Hurricane Hazel left large sections of Laird Dr., Glenvale Blvd. and Broadway Ave. submerged under a half foot of water.
Final soggy thoughts
After reviewing these and other rain-related misfortunes, I feel lucky to have sustained only relatively minor water damage to my basement. True, I must remove most of its contents to allow the contractors to do the repair work. But it’s given me an opportunity to throw out a lot of stuff that was just taking up space. As a result, I’ve already made countless donation trips to the Salvation Army…. I’m just grateful I can do it by car – and not by rowboat.
