A serious downpour around 4 p.m. July 27 caused a flash flood in the Village of Boyle, covering Railroad Avenue covered in about four feet of water.
Brad Beaulieu, the deputy chief of the Boyle Fire Department, said it took about five hours for the water pump trucks to have the street completely cleared of the river of water.
“With the way the community was situated, (all the water) ended up flowing along Railroad Avenue,” Beaulieu said. “From what I was told, there was three inches of rain on the ground in just the first 20 minutes. The road was covered all the way from Taylor Road to Highway 831.”
Boyle deputy mayor Shelby Kiteley said she has not seen this type of flooding happen in the community for a very long time.
“The amount of water I saw flowing down Hospital Avenue was just crazy,” Kiteley said. “I was then looking down the hill and I literally saw waves flowing along Railroad Avenue, just because of the volume of water that appeared. I did not go downtown that day because I just have a little car.”
Fire chief Darren Hill, who is also the owner of the Boyle Pizza House, said the downpour affected his own house as well.
“I was shutting down the restaurant when I receive a call from my wife that my basement was flooded,” Hill said.
“I then went home and helped to clean the water out and dry out the room,” Hill said. “In my case, we got off lucky as there was very little damage, and I likely will not have to make an insurance claim.”
Kiteley, who used to work for Piquette Insurance Services Limited, said she has already received three calls about how they can put in a claim.
“They told me their basements were flooded due to the rain,” she said. “I also serve on the board for the Boyle Youth Centre, and we received an SOS there, as well. Water was coming in from the side wall from underground, and we had to move some furniture aside and take a wet vac to that area as well. There was a significant amount of water in there, and the youth centre is located right on top of a hill.”
Beaulieu said other buildings affected by the flood included MG’s Convenience Services and the Boyle and District Community Centre.
“The ‘Welcome to Boyle’ sign at the south end of the village was ripped off its supports,” he said. “Only one post remained attached as a result, with the other one completely broken out. The sign ended up resting in the trees beside it.”
Kiteley added that as far as she knew, it was only material things that suffered any damage.
“The good thing of it all is that everyone came out safe and no one was hurt,” she said. “I’m also glad that the flood was short-lived, because if it had stuck around it could have caused even more serious damage.”
Bondiss
The Boyle Fire Department did not much time to rest as they were deployed out to the Summer Village of Bondiss the very next day.
Beaulieu said the east side of the community saw a lower spot get flooded.
“I would assume that the rain from (July 27) had accumulated into the next morning in and around the area,” he said. “There were at least four houses that were threatened from the flooding, and they did suffer some damage.”
At this time, he said they do not know how much the damage would cost at this time.
“We brought some water pump trucks to Bondiss (July 28),” Beaulieu said. “One of the home owners said she was dealing with about six inches of water in her basement at about 3 p.m. in the afternoon.”
He said they to have had a handle on the situation at about 8:30 p.m.
