A record-breaking rainstorm swamped Ottawa on Canada Day, dumping enough water in a matter of hours to flood roads and thousands of basements and to wash out the capital's birthday celebrations. What was meant to be a day of festivities instead turned into a scramble to bail out homes and clear waterlogged streets.
The numbers underscored just how extreme the storm was. A total of 118 millimetres of rain fell on the city, shattering the previous record for the most rain ever recorded in Ottawa on July 1, which had stood at 58.9 millimetres at the airport since 1959.
The flooding hit homes hard. Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said more than 1,900 people had called the city's 3-1-1 line to report that their basements had flooded, and he cautioned that the figure was likely to climb in the coming days as the volume of calls had made it difficult for agents to keep up.
Sutcliffe placed the storm among the most damaging in recent memory. He described the record-breaking rainfall as one of the worst storms to hit the city in the past 25 years, as residential neighbourhoods and major routes alike disappeared under water.
The rain began in the early afternoon. Thunderstorms moved through the national capital region between about 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Wednesday, quickly overwhelming drainage systems and turning streets into channels of fast-moving water.
Roads across the city bore the brunt. Flooding was reported on residential streets and on Highways 416 and 417 through the afternoon and into the evening, with several routes temporarily closed as drivers were forced to turn back.
The celebrations themselves became a casualty. The federal government cancelled the evening show portion of the national Canada Day ceremony at LeBreton Flats Park, including the fireworks, as the extreme weather made large outdoor gatherings unsafe.
With cleanup only just beginning, the storm capped a stretch of punishing weather across the region, where a heat wave had already been building. For Ottawa residents, the holiday ended not with fireworks but with wet basements, closed roads and the start of a long recovery.