I was up at my usual time, in the car and out the driveway by 5:40. The only difference this day would be that I would drive to work, rather than take the subway. I had a 4:08 tee-time. It was a pretty uneventful day, although it was relatively quiet in the office, even for a mid-summer Friday. I was going to a course that I had not been to before, Glen Cedar [1]. I estimated it would take about 1 hour in travel time and I like to give myself time to warm up so 2:00 was my planned departure time.
2:00. Leave office for 4:08 tee time
2:10. Weather report advises of tornado warnings in KW, travelling east at 70 km. A rough calculation puts the storm over the golf course sometime between 4:00 and 5:00
2:15 Send RIM to my golf partners and agree to cancel game; agree to meet at 3:30. I have about 1 hour to kill
2:25. Arrive at golf dome and hit some balls
2:45 lightening flash in distance; shortly thereafter I feel a few drops being blown on wind
3:00 finish at golf Dome
3:05 light rain
3:15. Arrive at designate alternative to golf course. Order a beer. Watch golf game on TV. Weather picking up, hard rain falling, but little wind
3:24. Satellite TV reports “Error 002” (lost signal).
3:30. Prearranged arrival time. No one arrives.
3:34. Big bolt of lightening strikes within 1 second of my location. Rain is coming down very hard
3:36. Sandy arrives; others are stuck at their various locations
3:45. It begins to hail, someone said they were the size of golf balls. Well, in reality they were less than half that size
3:55. My RIM resets itself. This is becoming a regular event. A sign of bad things to come
4:10. Rain and wind have slowed (relatively speaking). Decide to leave and meet at another location 2 blocks away.
4:15. Driving towards new destination. Observe that the streets are flooded. In some places there is as much as 8-12 inches of standing water. Traffic is very slow. Pharmacy St, north of Steeles is flooded, with stranded cars peppering the newly formed lake. I continue along Steeles to find the next street going north (Victoria Park) is also flooded. Although some cars are driving through I decide not to risk it and continue west along Steeles. Just after Victoria Park was where Steeles was flooded. Traffic was narrowed to one lane being shared by both the east and west direction. This single lane was in the middle of Steeles (that is the highest part of the street) where the water was the shallowest. I drove through very slowly trying to avoid making any waves that would flood the engine. I made it through to find an unobstructed roadway. What a feeling of freedom! I reached Woodbine, and turned right, only to be faced with another flooded street. Again I traversed the flooded area by driving on the middle of the street.
4:47. Arrive at Owl & Firkin on Woodbine. Rain has slowed to a light drizzle. I park, approach the front and see the door is open. How nice I think; I’ve made it. After about 35 mins to travel 2 blocks. I look down at the sill of the open door and think that’s odd, why is there water coming out of the pub? I peek through the open door to see the staff running around madly cleaning up. The Owl had been flooded.
4:50. Decided it’s not a good time to be out on the street, so agree to meet at the Holiday Inn. We Walk over from the Owl. We were able to walk around most of the flooding except when we reached the driveway into the hotel. There was a “river” separating us from our destination. It was at least 8 inches deep and 10-12 feet across. We met some others trying to get across, found some material and with the help of a strategically placed garbage can we were able to get across, with dry feet too.
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