Did you hear? Toronto got some rain.

On Monday afternoon before 4:30 pm, the rain started coming down.  The sky got very dark and then a heavy, pounding rainstorm hit.  I could hear it drumming on the roof over my head.  It was the type of storm that usually passes within a few minutes.  I was expecting the sky to be clear by going-home time.  But it wasn't.

The pouring rain carried on at maximum gush for almost two hours.  After 6:15 or so it lightened up from "downpour" to "normal everyday rain", but continued to fall well into the night.  Here are some photos of what happened in Toronto on Monday evening.

I didn't realize what was going on outside my workplace until the power went out.  That got my attention.  Then I left to catch a bus, and found traffic barely crawling along the streets because none of the traffic lights were working.

Only once I was on the bus did I realize, from the chatting of people around me, that the entire Greater Toronto Area was affected by major flooding and power outages.  I called Ken to let him know that I was OK and on my slow way home.

Most of the intersections were a mess.  At a major one, the only one I had to cross on foot, a good Samaritan was energetically directing traffic, bless him.  Stores were closed.  Gas station pumps were out of service.

When I got home, Ken was merrily barbequing dinner.  He was wearing a headlamp like a miner, which he switched on when he came inside.  He's a bit of a survivalist, so he always has disaster preparedness essentials on hand.  We have more flashlights than we need, and heaps of spare batteries.  He had the laptop set up playing music off battery power.  Sometimes I think that he enjoys these opportunities to make use of all his gear.

I read by flashlight until 9:30 pm, and then went to bed.  With no AC it was warm and humid inside and out.  I lay awake by my open window, listening to the endless rain.

We were fortunate to get our electricity turned back on later that night.  Some areas in Toronto, as of this morning, did not yet have power, and others were being subjected to rotating blackouts.  Our lives are just not designed to work without electricity.  My home seemed less like my home and more like a well-appointed cave, until lights came back on.