CORNWALL, Ontario – Cornwall Municipal Works crews were out on Tuesday, Feb. 5 to unclog catch basins and combat street flooding in the City.
Bill de Wit, Division Manager for Municipal Works said that blocked catch basins were causing unseasonable flooding in various areas throughout the city.
“We’re receiving phone calls all the time for different streets taht are flooded,” he said. de Wit also explained that there was a road patroller out along with Municipal Work crews who were identifying flooded areas.
de Wit said that the flooding has been caused in some cases by large snowbanks encroaching onto the streets and covering the catch basins.
He also stated that this type of flooding was unusual for this time of year.
“We just came out of a polar vortex and now we have this warmer weather,” he said. de Wit also pointed to the unusually high amounts of snow that have fallen in recent weeks.
“It is unusual,” he said. “I don’t remember this in my experience.”
de Wit said that if residents see a catch basin that is clogged or blocked and flooding, that they are welcome to clear it, but asked them to be careful of traffic, water and ice.