Jennifer Dow didn’t get any sleep Wednesday night. The Kettle Creek Conservation Authority (KCCA) Water Conservation Supervisor was haunted by the sound of rainfall throughout the evening.
Today, some of her worst fears were choking streams throughout the watershed and beyond, as rain and melting snow pushed ice flows and debris toward Lake Erie.
Environment Canada’s forecast for a trough of warmer temperatures and significant precipitation rolled mercilessly across Elgin County.
Rain was still falling when Dow visited Port Stanley on Thursday afternoon. Total accumulation was forecast in the range of 25-to-35 millimeters (mm). The amount of water that will be released from the snowpack when it melts is estimated to be between 44-to-116 mm.
Dow reiterated her advice to area residents. “Banks are extremely slippery and the water is very cold,” she said. “Parents and guardians are urged to keep children away from ponds and reservoirs. Ice conditions on frozen water bodies are unpredictable and unsafe at this time of year.”
(Above) That’s Stan’s Marina buried under all that ice and rushing water. Proprietor David McNiece was also hit heavily by wind and high water at the end of the 2021 season. Stan’s endured some $150,000 in flood damage caused by the 2018 ice jam.
Everybody and their brother was clicking photographs of Port Stanley’s ice flow.
Things weren’t much better in Port Bruce. Catfish Creek was jammed with ice at 1 p.m. today. The OPP was controlling traffic in the area.
