Thames River Flood in Chatham

Perhaps you have been deluged with photos of the recent flood of the lower reaches of the Thames River. Here are a few more.

The Thames River watershed is massive, draining approximately 5800 square kilometers. With all of the rain received in the watershed in the last few days, as well as the warm weather causing rapid melt of the higher than average snow pack, all that water has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is down through Chatham-Kent before the river empties into Lake St. Clair.

It has hit Thamesville and Chatham particularly hard. An interesting short video can be seen here.

I've checked out the flooding from several vantage points. One of the more accessible ones is the Third Street Bridge. This first shot looks towards Thames Street, which is totally flooded, and you can see well off to the right where the river is supposed to be. It has overflowed the banks by at least 100 metres at this point, it seems. (Click on any of the photos to get a larger view).

Towards Thames St with the flooded parking lot on the right

 This next shot shows the entrance to Thames St, just south of Harvey's (which was open the entire time, and sometimes quite busy, too).

 There was no one lining up to pay for non-existent parking!

 The bridge abutments managed to snag some debris, causing a slight damming effect.

Looking straight down Thames St

Looking to the south side of the river, from the Third St bridge

 This next photo is looking straight upstream, towards the Fifth St Bridge, which is under construction and barely above the water level.

 This next shot shows the entrance to the promenade on the south side of the river.

This next photo is looking downstream from the Third St Bridge. The tallest building on the left is the Civic Centre, and the complex of buildings on the right is the hospital. Fortunately the hospital side is a little higher so less threatened than the opposite side.

These next three photos were taken from the waterfront at the Civic Centre. The first one shows part of the former YMCA parking lot, with the hospital in the background across the river.

This one is directly in front of the Civic Centre, with a small building and a stairway in the water. The actual Civic Centre grounds did not appear affected, although there was some water in the Centre's closed off underground parking area.

 Across the river between the Civic Centre and the Third St. Bridge are some houses that normally would have a nice waterfront setting. Note the 'above ground' swimming pool almost completely underwater.

These next two photos were taken from the Lower Thames Valley Conservation Authority headquarters. The first photo looks towards the Fifth St Bridge which is under construction. Note the top of the picnic table. It wasn't apparent whether it was floating or not.

Next is from the waterfront deck of the LTVCA HQ, looking across to Tecumseh Park. Most of the park is high enough so as not to be affected by the current water level, although the walkway along the water's edge is completely submerged. A street on the left goes to the water's edge, but is blocked off.

A bit farther upstream is Thames Grove Conservation Area. There is a boat launch, a picnic area and walking trail and lots of open space. It is where the tremendously popular War of 1812 Re-enactment event took place in the fall for quite a few years. There is housing that backs right on to the CA. Now much of the CA is completely underwater and has also affected back yards. I'm not sure how basements fared, but there were some that had hoses out the basement window which had been pumping out water!

In this first photo, note the top of a large picnic shelter through the trees, barely sticking above the water.

 The water came close to some houses.

 Many back yards were at least partially submerged, and this photo was taken a few hours after the water had peaked.

 A couple of Mallards were using some debris to take a rest.

With winter winding down and spring just a few weeks away, hopefully this is the worst we will see!