Heavy rain creates watery deluge for some businesses

A torrential downpour that lasted about three minutes on Monday left many north-side Thunder Bay streets looking like rivers and caused several businesses to flood along Court Street.
"Blame Mother Nature" is the message from Norm Nadin, owner of Nadin's Contracting who completed infrastructure work along Court Street last year and continues along Red River Road.
"About 90 per cent of the roof drains in that whole area were all overwhelmed," Nadin said. "Mother Nature just unloaded and that system can't take it."
He added that because a contractor has been working in the area, people like to blame them when something like this happens.
"It's mandated that people are not allowed to dump roof drainage into the sanitary system. And that whole area, they all still do it," he said.
"You're not supposed to dump your stormwater in the sanitary system because it all goes down to the water treatment plant and they're treating rainwater at the taxpayer's expense."
Nadin said anyone with roof drains going into the sewer system should be aware that if excessive water from a storm overwhelms the sewers, it will likely cause a deluge of water in basements.
The businesses along Court Street, which include The Loop, Safeguard, Sweet North Bakery, Ritual Skin Care, Perfect Fit Lingerie and Ahnisnabae Art Gallery, are all connected structurally and experienced several inches of water in their basements.
"We had about a foot and a bit of water in our whole basement, which is about 2,000 square feet," said Beth Beth DeProphetis, co-owner of The Loop.
"Then it flows through the hallways that connect all the basements and then into their spots."
DeProphetis said they didn't have a lot of stock but they stored their business paperwork and computer equipment down there.
"Our whole basement is trash," she said.
"Fortunately for us, most of the day-to-day operations aren't affected but (down the block) the restaurant (Sweet North Bakery) had food storage in there."
Erinn DeLorenzi, the owner of Sweet North Bakery, posted a video on social media of herself wading through 12 inches of water in their basement this week.
Down the Street, Louise Thomas, owner of Ahnisnabae Art Gallery, has filled her gallery with artwork that she is attempting to dry out after plucking it from the water in their basement.
She said a cap came dislodged from a recently installed pipe in their basement and water "spewed from it" at a great rate.
"We could hear the water coming down the pipe and my son went downstairs to make sure everything was OK," she said. "I had some of my inventory down where the water was coming out of the (pipe) and there was lots of damage. The water went from the middle of my basement right to the front end. It was crazy and stressful."
She said her son put the cap back on and tightened the end but it needs to be "reinforced better than that."
Meanwhile, Nadin recommends people should ensure their roof drainage is connected to the storm system and have a "check valve" installed on their sewer system.
"If there's any back pressure from when you get these big alarming storms it closes a flap and it will keep the water from coming back in your basement," Nadin said. "But the other problem is those roof drains. Most of the buildings in that Court Street business section have flat roofs and the water goes down the drain and into their sanitary system and backs everything up."

Sandi Krasowski, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Chronicle-Journal