A woman and her son — along with a cocker spaniel mom and her puppies — are lucky to be alive after a tornado hit a Kawartha Lakes farm house on Thursday afternoon (July 15).

Carey Stacey and her son Owen were in the basement of the house, located on Royal Oak Road near Manilla, when the severe weather hit.

According to a public Facebook post from Carey’s mother Lynn, who founded the cocker spaniel breeding business Double L. Spaniels with her husband Len, Carey and Owen were in the basement tending to a cocker spaniel who was having a litter of puppies.

“A wall or part of the ceiling came down and hit Carey hard on the head and covered her in the rubble,” Lynn writes on the Double L. Spaniels Facebook page. “Luckily Owen wasn’t hurt. He dug her out.”

Kawartha Lakes OPP were called to the farm just after 4 p.m., but downed trees made the road impassable for emergency vehicles, according to a police media release.

Police officers proceeded on foot to check on the “trapped individuals”, the media release reads, while emergency crews cleared the roadway of debris to allow access to the scene.

Carey was treated at the scene and then transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

According to Lynn’s Facebook post, the storm spared the lives of all the cocker spaniels on the farm, including the mom and her litter of puppies.

Carey’s husband Steve arrived home from work to find the dogs running around in the fields around the house.

“He loaded them all in his cattle trailer tonight and they are all back at Balsam Lake with Len and I,” Lynn writes.

Lynn is asking clients of Double L. Spaniels who have reserved a puppy to email her at doublelspaniels@gmail.com as Carey’s laptop, camera, and paperwork have been lost in the rubble.

Royal Oak Road remains closed from Simcoe Street to White Rock Road while the Kawartha Lakes Roads Department cleans up the fallen trees, according to police.

Worse as you go east. This is a neighbour’s house. Lost there barn too. 🤞hope everyone’s allright. We couldn’t get down the road for trees pic.twitter.com/WUif1lZd6d

— tim webster (@timspringdale14) July 15, 2021

With Ontario set to move into step three of the province’s reopening plan on Friday (July 16) at 12:01 a.m., Peterborough’s medical officer of health is appealing to residents to remain vigilant as the province enters this milestone of the pandemic.

During a Peterborough Public Health media briefing held Thursday (July 15), Dr. Rosana Salvaterra said susceptible children and unvaccinated adults in the community “could continue to fuel clusters and outbreaks — especially as we enter step three.”

As additional indoor settings reopen and gathering limits increase, Dr.Salvaterra said following public health measures will be critical for Peterborough’s case numbers to remain under control.

At the media briefing, Peterborough Public Health’s manager of environmental services Julie Ingram spoke to the precautions residents should be taking in step three.

“Individuals need to make sure that they’re following the rules and complying with the regulatory requirements that businesses are required to put in place,” said Ingram. “This means that all individuals are going to be expected to follow physical distancing requirements, wearing a mask or face covering in an indoor setting, and staying home when you’re not feeling well. If you even have a runny nose, do not go out.”

Contact tracing will be more critical and more complex during this next stage in the pandemic, Dr. Salvaterra added.

“I urge you, if you haven’t already downloaded your COVID contact tracing app, please do so and please activate it,” said Dr. Salvaterra.

Peterborough enters step three at a far better case rate than the previous week. As of July 15 at 4:10 p.m., the health unit reported 13 active cases — a significant drop from last week’s 29 cases.

Nevertheless, Peterborough’s weekly case incidence is still higher than the provincial average, with both the highly transmissible alpha and delta variants responsible for the latest cases.

“As we head into step three tomorrow along with the rest of the province, I do remain concerned that our higher case incidence rate locally, combined with the increased access to settings — especially indoor settings — can put us at risk for increased transmission, especially since we have both variants circulating here,” Dr. Salvaterra said.

There are currently two active COVID-19 outbreaks in the region, an increase of one since last week. The first outbreak, which was initially reported last week, is in an outdoor workplace setting. The new outbreak is at a congregate living setting. Both outbreaks are in the City of Peterborough.

Dr. Salvaterra noted that Peterborough Public Health staff are addressing the latest outbreak by supporting infection prevention measures.

“All residents have been offered testing,” she noted. “The staff identified as high-risk contacts are self-isolating.”

Ontario enters the third and final step of reopening after meeting the required vaccination threshold of 70 to 80 per cent of the adult population vaccinated with a single dose and 25 per cent with both doses.

In Peterborough, Dr. Salvaterra noted that vaccination rates continue to climb. Seventy-eight per cent of local adults over the age of 18 and 63.7 per cent of local youth aged 12 to 17 have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Over 56 per cent of local adults aged 18 and older and 13.2 per cent of local youth aged 12 to 17 are now fully immunized.

About 1,500 first doses and 15,000 second doses have been administered to Peterborough residents in the past week.

“Although the numbers and the percentages of fully immunized youth still have room to grow, I think it is really encouraging to see the pace of that growth just in the last week,” said Dr. Salvaterra, noting that there has been a nine per cent increase in vaccinated youth this week.

Dr. Salvaterra is urging residents to go and get their COVID-19 vaccine if they have not yet done so and, for those with second dose appointments in August, to move their appointments to an earlier date.

“We have lots of vaccine coming to Peterborough, and we have a great number of appointments still available at our immunization clinics,” said Dr. Salvaterra. “Currently, there are 14,000 open appointments available for anyone wanting to book their first or second dose before the end of July.”

The mass immunization clinic in the Evinrude Centre is accepting walk-ins for first doses every night between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Youth aged 12 to 17 can attend te walk-in clinic at Peterborough Regional Health Centre for their first dose of vaccine any day between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m.

To move up your second dose appointment to a sooner date, visit the Ontario COVID-19 vaccine booking website at ontario.ca/bookvaccine, or call the vaccine booking line at 1-833-943-3900.

“I strongly encourage local residents to accelerate their second dose appointments and get vaccinated as soon as possible,” said Dr. Salvaterra. “Please remember that there may be a pharmacy near you that can provide you with easy access to either Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.”

In step three, Ontario still has vaccination targets to exit into a new sense of normalcy. In order to exit step three, 80 per cent of the eligible population are to have received one dose of vaccine and 75 per cent with both doses, with no health unit less than 70 per cent fully vaccinated.

As of July 15 at 4:10 p.m., there are 13 active cases of COVID-19 in the Peterborough region — a decrease of 16 active cases since last week. There have been 22 COVID-related deaths in the region to date.

Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the greater Kawarthas region for Thursday afternoon and evening (July 15).

The severe thunderstorm watch is currently in effect for Peterborough County, the City of Kawartha Lakes, and Haliburton County.

Conditions are favourable for severe thunderstorms on Thursday afternoon into the evening as a cold front sweeps across southern Ontario from the west.

Ahead of and along the front, scattered thunderstorms are expected to develop.

Some of these storms could become severe, with damaging wind gusts of 80 to 110 km/h, nickel-sized hail, and heavy downpours. A few isolated tornadoes are also possible.

Strong wind gusts can toss loose objects, damage weak buildings, break branches off trees and overturn large vehicles. Remember, severe thunderstorms can produce tornadoes. Heavy downpours can cause flash floods and water pooling on roads. Be prepared for severe weather. Take cover immediately, if threatening weather approaches.

Lightning kills and injures Canadians every year. Remember, when thunder roars, go indoors!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 17 years since Peterborough experienced the Great Flood of Thursday, July 15, 2004.

Unlike many Peterborough residents and businesses, kawarthaNOW came through the Great Flood relatively unscathed. Our 150-year-old house has always had a wet basement, and we have two sump pumps installed for the spring overflow. When it flooded, the sump pumps ran for three weeks straight — but we didn’t lose anything of value.

However, whenever there’s a severe thunderstorm watch for Peterborough, we still wonder with trepidation if another Great Flood is coming.

In a way, the 2004 Peterborough flood actually started in Alberta. On Sunday, July 11th, 2004, the City of Edmonton — already soaked from days of rain — experienced a small but spectacular storm that dumped more than 150 mm of rain in parts of the city in less than an hour.

Mud and water poured down streets and through windows. A record flash flood washed out roads, filled underpasses, flooded basements, turned streets into rivers and intersections into lakes. Enormous water pressure in the sewer system blew hundreds of manhole covers into the sky.

That same storm system slowly worked its way east across Canada, travelling 2,700 kilometres until it reached Peterborough three days later, on Wednesday, July 14th.

There, fed by cool air from the north and moist air from the south, the system produced intense rainstorms that began on Wednesday evening and continued for five hours during the early morning hours of Thursday, July 15th.

Measurements of the amount of rain that fell on Peterborough during the storm varied, from 100 mm (4 inches) recorded at the Peterborough Airport to 240 mm (9.5 inches) recorded at Trent University.

Much of the rain fell in fewer than five hours early Thursday morning, with 78.8 mm (3 inches) falling between 3:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. alone.

If all of that sounds like a lot of water, that’s because it is — it totals 14 billion litres, the same amount of water that flows over Niagara Falls in about 40 minutes.

Any city’s drain and sewer system would have a challenge dealing with that much rain, but it was an impossible task for Peterborough’s. Normally, the city’s sewage system deals with about 1.3 million gallons per day; during the storm, the sewage treatment plant measured a peak flow of 7 million gallons of waste water.

At the time of the storm, over 80 per cent of the pipes in the city’s storm water system (some of which were built a century ago) were undersized and didn’t meet modern standards, creating bottlenecks in moving the flood water.

Downtown Peterborough, where the rainfall was concentrated, consists of largely impervious paved surfaces, including streets that are not well designed to convey flood water over land. In addition, groundwater that seeped into cracked or misaligned sewer pipes created excess water in the system, leading to back-ups and basement flooding.

All of these factors combined meant the city’s sewers simply couldn’t cope with the volume of water, resulting in sudden and severe flooding. Peterborough’s fire department was soon inundated with calls from across the entire city, ranging from flooded basements to fire alarms.

City utility and social services were overburdened with responding to the consequences of the flooding. The City of Peterborough declared a state of emergency after the storm, which stayed in effect for two weeks. Many city staff worked 18 to 20 hour a days until the state of emergency was finally lifted on July 29.

Here are some interesting facts about the impact of the flood:

• 171 long-term care residents were evacuated from Extendicare Nursing Home to the Evinrude Centre.
• 500 homes and businesses had hydro meters pulled from flooded basements.
• Hundreds of flood-damaged water heaters required replacement.
• 1,000 homes had gas lines disconnected.
• 498 electrical systems were disconnected.
• There were 28 motor vehicle accidents.
• The city issued emergency clothing to more than 1,300 people and emergency food to more than 1,000 households.
• The Salvation Army served over 10,000 meals.
• Firefighters pumped out over 1,868 basements, garages, and backyards.
• 25 people who were trapped in or on cars needed to be rescued.
• Cleaning up flood-related garbage and debris was a major undertaking. Around 12,500 tons of materials were placed in the landfill in the two weeks following the flood (four times the normal amount).
• The Peterborough Museum and Archives had recently relocated the Balsillie Collection of Roy Studio Images (valued at over $8 million) to a 400-square-foot climate-controlled storage facility on the lower level of the Peterborough Public Library. Flood water shattered plate glass windows on the ground floor of the library and a torrent of sewage-contaminated water and debris spilled into the lower level, immersing 10 per cent of the Balsillie Collection under a foot of water for 24 hours.

In the end, the flood resulted in $95 million in insured losses in Peterborough, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Overtime and expenses for city staff responding to the flood amounted to $1.4 million.

Costs of repairs and restoration (including roads, bridges, culverts, buildings, and the Museum photo archives) equalled $21 million, with the Ontario government providing $25 million for emergency repair and restoration costs for city infrastructure. The impact of lost revenue and productivity for businesses and residents likely amounted to millions of dollars as well.

Making matters worse, the 2004 flood came only 25 months after another major flood in June 2002, when Peterborough suffered through a severe summer storm that generated more than 70 mm (3 inches) of rain in a 24-hour period. Many Peterborough residents and business owners had just recovered from damages caused by the 2002 flood when they were hit again by the 2004 flood.

Shortly after the 2004 flood, the City of Peterborough hired UMA Engineering Ltd. (now known as AECOM Ltd.) to prepare a flood reduction master plan. Since the completion of the plan in 2005, the city has undertaken a series of studies to assess vulnerability and has updated stormwater management designs and infrastructure to protect the city from future flooding damage.

Since 2005, the city has completed detailed flood reduction studies for waterways within the city (including Bears Creek, Byersville-Harper Creek, Curtis Creek, Jackson Creek, Meade Creek, Riverview Creek, and Thompson Creek).

Examples of recent flood reduction projects include replacing culverts to reduce the risk of flooding in Eact City, installing a large storm sewer system on Marina Boulevard that will capture major flood waters and divert it around at-risk property, conducting annual inspections of stormwater management ponds to ensure they are ready to hold back water during heavy rain events, and regular flushing and cleaning of the storm and sanitary sewer system to ensure that are ready when the next big rain comes.

In addition to upgrading infrastructure, the city now offers stormwater management incentive programs for residents.

These include a rain garden subsidy program to offset the cost of installing green infrastructure on private property to absorb stormwater, and a flood reduction subsidy program to help residents cover the cost of flood reduction efforts — such as installing a backwater valve to prevent sewage backup into homes, downspout disconnections, and catch basin disconnections.

Let’s all hope that the city’s efforts over the past 17 years will help to ensure that there are no more Great Floods in Peterborough.

Like many communities around the world, Nogojiwanong/Peterborough is ramping up efforts to deal with the critical issues before us. Following a virtual forum held in March, where community group representatives and interested individuals came together to learn about and discuss a local strategy to address global challenges, we are now ready to take the next step.

The issues of greatest importance to our region — as identified in a community gathering in February 2019 — are prioritizing Indigenous leadership, eradicating poverty, quality education, clean water and sanitation, and climate action.

Four of these five priority areas were selected from the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The fifth, prioritizing Indigenous leadership, was chosen by our community to frame and lead the other four priority action areas.

An Indigenous Leadership Action Team was created to prioritize Indigenous leadership. Made up of representatives primarily from local Michi Saagiig First Nations — along with an Elder advisor and two Michi Saagiig Anishinaabe consultants — the action teams representing poverty, education, clean water, and climate action were guided to understand and consider their issue from an Indigenous worldview and perspective.

To help the action teams, the Indigenous Leadership Action Team highlighted existing resources, offered important insight, and identified voices missing from the consultation process.

At the spring forum, the community was introduced to the five action teams tasked with leading the local SDG response. Four months later, our local action teams, as supported by the Kawartha World Issues Centre and GreenUP, are ready to share their approach, strategies, and the opportunities they see for our community.

To promote an understanding of the local SDG project, what the priority areas mean locally, and how they can be addressed, the action teams created reports for our use. They can be found alongside the local SDG project overview at www.kwic.info/advancing sdgs.

Below you’ll find a sample of next steps from each of the action team reports. While reading them, consider how they might be applied to your own lives, work, and community.

In the report from the Indigenous Leadership Action Team, team members recommend we work towards increasing access to cross-cultural, land-based learning. This will enable us to build stronger relationships with each other and the land.

The report also suggests creating more opportunities for youth, identifying and supporting Indigenous champions, and promoting the development of reciprocal relationships between local decision-makers and Indigenous communities.

Finally, the Indigenous Leadership report encourages a shift in our current system to one where we are open to transformation through Indigenous knowledge, relationships and worldviews. This would enable us to move beyond “us and them” to a more collaborative way of living together and moving forward.

The next step in the local SDG process, as recommended by the No Poverty Action Team Report, involves ensuring that those who have experienced, or are experiencing, poverty are included in the development and delivery of anti-poverty initiatives. To address their challenge, this team also recommends building deeper partnerships and support systems between community organizations, including those that haven’t historically identified themselves as part of the anti-poverty movement.

The local Quality Education Action Team wants to ensure we’ve included the input and engagement of people who’ve been excluded from quality education initiatives in the past, especially youth from traditionally marginalized groups. Quality education initiatives should respond to the specific needs of a community. Greater representation during both program design and implementation will ensure that these initiatives provide meaningful opportunities for all learners.

Next steps from the Clean Water and Sanitation Team Report include developing or building upon existing local groups, partnerships, and networks in a way that enables a diversity of stakeholders to advocate for clean water. This team is interested in collecting data on local water and watershed health in order to initiate meaningful future improvement.

Our local governments and community groups have already put much thought and consultation into developing a response to climate change in our communities. In their report, the Climate Action Team indicates that an important next step in addressing this issue is to prioritize the implementation of these plans and policies, and to collaborate across sectors to maximize their impact.

Ultimately, the SDG action team reports provide a model for how to approach and advance the key priority areas for our community and engage individuals that are often excluded in local decision-making.

“Great efforts have been made to include as many voices as possible in this project,” says Brianna Salmon, executive director of GreenUP. “Like the global SDG movement, the project is committed to ensuring no one is left behind. We want everyone to feel welcome to share their concerns and to be a part of the solutions.”

Many in our global community agree that now is the time for change and transformation. While global frameworks like the sustainable development goals are helpful in getting national priorities on track for positive change, we need real action at the local level.

As a community, we’ve been gifted with a diversity of citizens — including you — who have the knowledge, skills and determination to improve our world and address the challenges we face.

The local SDG team encourages you to continue the conversations we’ve started, look for opportunities to implement these recommendations, and build relationships to move this project forward, together, in a good way.

If you have any questions, please email shaelyn@kwic.info.