CMHA battles water after storm

By Barry Hazelhurst

The Canadian Mental Health Association is cleaning up after the “worst flood” it has ever experienced.

Water flowed under the doorways at the rear of the agency in the 1400 block of Windsor Avenue during the torrential rains Sept. 25^th. Employees tried in vain to beat back the tide with squeegees and brooms.

“It was the most amount of rain in a short period of time which caused the flood,” said Ed Hogan, manager of maintenance for the CMHA.

“This is the worst flood I have ever seen here.”

Hogan was called to the building to start the gas-powered pump because the sump pump could not keep up.

It took 20 minutes with one gas pump, two sump pumps and employees pushing water with tools, before the water started to recede.

Patricia Patterson, a security guard who has worked at CMHA for more than a decade, was on duty during the downpour.

“We were using brooms, shop vacuums and squeegees but it kept coming in,” said Patterson.

A new sump pump ​was bought in preparation for the next storm.