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Patty Borthwick lives on the shore of Lake Utopia and can see the water levels gradually recede after heavy rain over the weekend.
She said her two-metre retaining wall was about two-thirds of a metre below the water on Monday afternoon. The water level was a lot higher on Sunday night, she said.
“We know of three people who have flooded basements that are on the lake,” said Borthwick.
“It’s washed your docks away or washed your steps away, or cleared things off of your decks depending on how close you are to the water,” she said.
Those living near Bonnie River, Second Falls, Lake Utopia and the Magaguadavic River were affected by the heavy rain.
Borthwick said the rising water level causes anxiety for days as people do not know when it is going to stop, as well as the stress of cleaning up the property damage.
Borthwick said some docks displaced by the flooding weigh a lot and must be lifted by a tow truck or crane to get back in the water.
“We have to do things that make it proactive prior to these big rain events, put things in place so this flooding doesn’t happen,” she said.
Borthwick has been living by the shore since 1994 and said she has seen the water levels fluctuate greatly because of climate change.
She said things like propane tanks, barbecues and lawn decorations end up in the water, making the water unsafe for marine species.
“We have the endangered Lake Utopia rainbow smelt … do we not care about them or do we care about them?” said Borthwick.
But it’s not just aquatic species that are affected, said Borthwick. She said it causes loons to have trouble making nests.
Flooding happens so regularly that residents have a social media group to help each other locate missing items, said Borthwick.
Eastern Charlotte Mayor John Craig said more than 100 millimetres of rain fell quickly.
Craig said it will take at least three days for the water levels to come back to normal.
“The people were very nervous … especially at nighttime when you couldn’t see the river rising,” he said.
“It made it more stressful for the people, and psychologically it made it bad for people living along the river.”
Craig said there isn’t much the municipality can do to prevent flooding.
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