Flooding in Port Bruce

On Tuesday, Feb. 20 at about 12:45 p.m., Nathan Smale, the owner of Corner View Café in Port Bruce, slowly drove through a flooded section of Imperial Road in the lakeside hamlet a short distance from his restaurant which is located by the pavilion and park which can be seen in the background. This view is looking east towards the mouth of Catfish Creek where a dragline was breaking ice in an attempt to mitigate the flooding. He said the water level on the road had been three inches higher (7.6 centimetres) earlier that afternoon. Due to the flooding in Port Bruce at the time, Imperial Road was closed to traffic at Dexter Line and Rush Creek Line was closed at Imperial Road. The flood water started to recede later that afternoon. All three conservation authorities in the region had issued flood watches for their watersheds over the Family Day holiday weekend which were updated to flood warnings by Tuesday morning. The Catfish Creek Conservation Authority flood warning remained in place for the rest of the day into Wednesday at noon with record high temperatures of 13 degrees Celsius forecast for Tuesday with several millimetres more rain expected along with the continuing snow and ice melt. (AE/Craig Bradford)