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1. What should I do if a flood message is issued for my area?
2. Who is responsible for issuing warnings to the public?
3. What is TRCA's role in flood forecasting and warning?
4. What operations take place during a rainfall event?
5. Are there different levels of warnings?
6. Who receives the Flood Warning messages?
7. Can I receive flood messages?
8. Messages are often issued but no flooding occurs. Why does this happen?
9. What should I teach my children about flooding?
10. How do I get more information about the flood warning program?
11. What number should media call for more information during an event?
12. I rent a TRCA property that is flooding. Who should I call?
13. My basement if flooding, what should I do?
Take heed of the message issued and stay well away from rivers. Be prepared to follow the advice and instructions of emergency response authorities. Also, make sure that you have a personal 72 hour survival kit ready for yourself and each member of your family in case you have to evacuate your home or shelter in place.
The responsibility for flood contingency planning is shared by Municipalities, Conservation Authorities and the Province of Ontario (Ministry of Natural Resources). As with all emergencies, municipalities have the primary responsibility for the welfare of residents during flood events and may call upon the Province for support if required. The Ministry of Natural Resources and the Conservation Authorities are primarily responsible for operating a Flood Forecasting and Warning system which involves issuing messages and providing advice to Municipalities.
Conservation Authorities have several areas of responsibility for flooding and flood emergencies:
Maintain communications with municipalities and the Surface Water Monitoring Centre of the Ministry of Natural Resources during a flood
There are two TRCA Flood Duty Officers on duty at all times (24 hours a day, 365 days a year) who monitor the watershed and weather conditions. Forecasting tools (computer models) are fed up to date information throughout the event to predict, as accurately as possible, the water level within the rivers throughout the TRCA's jurisdiction. If predicted levels near bankfull levels then a message will be issued.
There are four different messages that may be issued by a Flood Duty Officer depending on current conditions within the rivers. They include: High Water Safety Bulletins, Flood Advisories, Flood Warnings, and Lake Ontario Shoreline Hazard Warnings. For detailed descriptions of each message please refer to the Flood Contingency Plan document on this website.
Flood messages are issued by phone, fax and/or electronic transmission (email) to designated individuals within municipalities, local agencies, school boards and the media. These individuals are responsible for relaying the message to relevant individuals and departments within their organizations and activating their role as defined by the Flood Contingency Plan and their organization's Emergency Response Plan.
Please contact the Flood Warning Line at (416) 661-6514 to speak to a staff member regarding receiving messages directly. Generally, the number of contacts is limited to municipal staff, select agencies and private landowners directly affected by flooding in order to allow the Flood Duty Officers to concentrate on their forecasting and monitoring roles during an event. However, if appropriate, new contacts may be added.
Weather systems are extremely complex and difficult to predict. However, we rely on the best information available to forecast the potential for flooding within our jurisdiction. This includes information from a variety of climatology sources and we are also in direct contact with Environment Canada meteorologists during and event to receive the latest updates. Precipitation amounts are often less than expected due to a number of factors, including: redirection of an anticipated storm away from our area, dissipation of rainfall prior to the storm reaching our area, false readings on the radar data due to "noise" within the data, and over prediction by the numerical weather prediction models due to the complex nature of weather systems.
At the TRCA, Flood Duty Officers have to make decisions based on the data currently available and past experience with similar storm systems. These decisions have to be made in a timely manner in order to provide adequate notice to our member municipalities, school boards and the public. If in doubt, we tend to err on the side of caution.
Children should be made aware of the dangers of flooding waters. It is often difficult to judge the depth of water, and the strength of fast flowing water can be very deceiving. Both adults and children can be quickly overpowered by flood waters. Therefore, the best thing to do during a flood is to stay well back from the edge of the water (a minimum of 3 metres or 10 ft).
For more information please send an email to info.floodwarning@sympatico.ca or call the flood warning line at (416) 661-6514.
Media inquiries should be directed to the flood warning line at (416) 661-6514. Be sure to follow the voice prompts to "tag" the message so that it will be forwarded directly to the on-call Flood Duty Officer. Every effort will be made to respond to media inquiries in a timely fashion.
If you are experiencing flooding on your TRCA rental property please call the Property pager number at (416) 295-0127.
In the event of basement flooding please contact your local municipality.
