There is potential risk to Homes on Toronto island: says John Tory

#John Tory, #Toronto, #TorontoIslands, #floods, #Ward'sIsland, #WarrenHoselton 
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Flooding on the islands had been due more to rising lake levels than recent rain, although the heavy rain had worsened both the situations, said Toronto Mayor John Tory, media reports said.

The Toronto Islands had been similarly flooded in the early '70s and early '90s, and residents staying there for a long time were not daunted by the recent flooding, CBCNews reports said. 

Tory said if more rain falls there would be potential damage to homes on Ward's Island.

On the other hand, city officials were mapping low lying areas and monitoring lake levels, he said.

Warren Hoselton, a park supervisor for the Toronto Islands told CBC Toronto that 5,000 sandbags had been put down and hew was expecting more bags to be placed the following day. 

Hoselton said waves can rise to two or three feet high on the islands and only precautionary steps were being taken to protect the islands. 

"The water levels are high and they are predicted to rise slightly, but the wild card is the winds and the waves action," he said. "It's not going to be a quick fix. We're not out of the woods yet. It's going to be a while," CBCNews reports said.

Mayor John Tory says city officials are monitoring the condition on the Toronto Islands.

Winds have shifted, which means the water is being pushed onto lower areas of the islands, where flooding was evident on Friday.

Although residents in that area had told that the damage to the properties was not much, Tory was not convinced by their statements.

"It's one of those things where it could get worse if the water levels got much higher, but for the moment, we didn't even hear people saying yesterday that there was a lot of homes that were actually damaged," said Tory, CBCNews reports said.
 
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)

Image of John Tory: Wikipedia

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