An 'indoor waterfall' at Union Station: Downtown Toronto flooded as severe storm disrupts life in the region

Heavy rainfall has caused major disruptions across Toronto Downtown and the Greater Toronto Area as hundreds of thousands of locals were left without power. A severe storm hit the province of Ontario on Tuesday, causing floods across major streets and highways, including the Don Valley Parkway. Many people in the region captured visuals of submerged vehicles and even an “indoor waterfall” at the Union Station.

These visuals coming out of Canada’s largest city served as a reminder to the Jul. 8 floods from back in 2013 for many people who wondered why the city was once again unprepared for an event that's likely to halt life as they know it.

“This is like the 2013 Toronto flood all over again. Same exact spots.

Why did we not get more prepared? We've had 11 years to fix our sewers.

Hoping everyone is staying safe and avoiding the roads,” posted a city based lawyer on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Environment Canada issued a warning Tuesday morning, forecasting up to 110 millimetres of rain expected to fall with rates of 40 mm/h possible at some points.

The warning emphasized the "heavy downpours” that could cause flash floods and water pooling on roads” and the possibility of localized flooding in low-lying areas.

Why was the DVP kept open so long?

The floods resulted in worsening already struggling Toronto traffic, as major highways and intersections were choked up with flood water, resulting in the Don Valley Parkway being blocked in both directions along with significant disruption around Lakeshore.

Around Tuesday afternoon, locals raised concerns over the DVP remaining open to flowing traffic despite the torrential downpour causing unease for commuters during what is being called an unprecedented weather event for the city.

“These cars will now be forced to reverse backwards up the DVP. Dangerous situation unfolding. Why is the highway still open?”

However, it was later closed, per an online weather monitoring account.

More than 150,000 people were left without power due to the severe storm

Toronto Hydro reported they were working closely with Hydro One, an electricity transmission and distribution utility serving the Canadian province of Ontario, to tackle widespread outages due to a loss of supply. However Torontonians began to run out of patience the longer it took for authorities to resolve the situation.

“Fix it already. My basement is flooding !! What is taking so long,” vented a disgruntled local caught in the midst of the floods.

“How is it possible that a city with millions of people can be without power due to a rainstorm - with no warning? I grew up in Newfoundland with far worse weather than this and it took a lot to lose power. And then, we would have warning,” wrote another, drawing a comparison to another Canadian province.

A Downtown Toronto based marketing professional, Saloni Sharma, who was in the middle of her work day when her place ran out of power, told Yahoo News Canada the interruption forced her to make a last minute dash to join an important meeting which, eventually, she ended up missing.

In total, more than 167,000 customers were impacted by the outages causing loss of power, according to CBC News.

The heavy rain system also caused disruptions among major public transits, bringing the TTC and GO Train lines to a halt along with significant road closures across the CVP, Highways 401 and 410, and more.

A section of Convair Drive near the Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga was also closed due to flooding but there was no flooding at the airport itself and neither have any flight disruptions been reported so far.