Toronto disaster relief charity acquires new anti-flood barriers for next local emergency | CBC News

A Toronto charity known for its international disaster relief work has acquired new anti-flood barriers that it says could help protect local infrastructure in Ontario in a future flooding emergency.

GlobalMedic, a non-profit organization that provides relief in the event of disasters, demonstrated how the anti-flood barriers work on Tuesday at a Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services training facility.

The bright yellow reusable barriers, which can be deployed quickly and easily, are designed to stop floods to protect civilian infrastructure, such as power plants, hospitals and water purification plants.

“This is just a new defence to help municipalities in Ontario,” Rahul Singh, executive director of GlobalMedic, said Tuesday. 

“If a municipality is about to experience a flood, they can call us and we’ll get it out there. If we can keep a town’s electricity going, if we can keep clean water in the town going, the impact to civilians will be minimized and lives will be saved.”

The demonstration came after rainfall last week drenched the Greater Toronto Area, flooding major roads, causing power outages and disrupting public transit. Parts of Toronto saw more than 100 millimetres of rainfall in a torrential downpour that flooded homes, streets and major highways including the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway. 

Barriers use weight of water to stop flooding

The charity says it acquired the “Water-Gate” barriers in two sizes from MegaSecur, a company in Victoriaville, Que., through a grant from Emergency Management Ontario. 

The long, flat rubber barriers can be laid out and unrolled before a flooding event. As water starts to flow, it fills the barrier, stands it up and the barrier holds the water back.

“It uses the weight of the water to stop the water on itself,” Singh said.

According to Singh, the barriers are only one of two certified by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He estimates the flood barriers will last about 10 years.

“We keep them at the ready to lend out at any time, whether it’s North Bay, Thunder Bay, Brantford, Whitby. Whoever needs it, we will lend it to them and deploy it with them,” Singh said.

Mississauga fire department had 4 boats doing rescues

In Mississauga, the storm flooded roads and washed out trails. Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services crews were out on boats, rescuing people in the water.

Mississauga Fire Chief Deryn Rizzi, who is also director of emergency management, said some areas of the city received so much rain so quickly that anti-flood barriers might not have helped, but they could have come in handy in other areas, such as a flooded parking lot of a local seniors’ centre.

A barrier would have blocked off some of the parking lot so that when the seniors’ centre was evacuated, people could have walked across the lot instead of being put in boats and moved, she said. 

“It’s always important to have these conversations so that we know what equipment, what resources are available for the next time. We always talk about this 100-year flood. It doesn’t mean it will happen every 100 years. It means you have a one per cent chance of it happening in any given year,” Rizzi said.

“We want to make sure that we have the discussions early, with all of our partners, at the table so we can talk about: ‘How can we do this better? What can do for the next time?'”

Rizzi said Peel Region’s joint fire communications centre received more than 700 calls for help during the storm. The Mississauga fire department had four boats out doing rescues and all of its firefighters were out, she said.