A Message from Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and Burlington City Councillors
Burlington Flood 2014: Remembering five years later
August 2019
It has been five years since the City of Burlington received nearly two months of rain (191 milimetres) in about eight hours. The record rainfall on Aug. 4, 2014, caused significant flooding and damage in parts of the city. Roads, highways, businesses and more than 3,000 homes were flooded.
In the days after the flood, thousands of people in the community came together to give their time, resources and financial support to help flood victims.
The City worked with Halton Region, the Province of Ontario and the Burlington Community Foundation Flood Disaster Relief Committee and has helped individuals and families rebuild and recover from the Aug. 4, 2014, flood.
On June 30, 2015, 272 approved claims totalling $2.7 million were finalized for victims of the flood. That work is now concluded, and many of the families who have received payments have expressed their sincere appreciation to those who donated funds to the relief efforts. A total of $896,000 was raised by the Burlington community and matched two-to-one by the provincial government's Ontario Disaster Relief Program.
On July 15, 2015, Burlington City Council voted to approve an additional $20.4 million to funds already budgeted for storm water infrastructure improvements in Burlington. These additional funds will be spent over the next 10 years on storm water management capital upgrades, such as larger creek culverts and creek channel improvements.
Five years later, we understand that residents are still dealing with the effects from the 2014 flood. The city has reviewed its policies and has taken action in regard to emergency preparedness and climate change. High-intensity, short duration storms have become more frequent – those include wind storms and ice storms. Climate change is currently ranked as the city’s third highest risk.
On April 23, 2019, city council unanimously passed a motion to declare a climate change emergency. This was brought forward by Councillor Rory Nisan. The City is working on a Climate Action Plan, Corporate Energy Management Plan, Storm Water Design Standards and Urban Forest Management Plan. The City has also set the important goal for city operations to be net carbon neutral by 2040 and work towards being a net carbon neutral community.
The city is committed to Emergency Preparedness. In July 2019, council passed a new Emergency Continuity Bylaw to support disaster resiliency and community engagement. Burlington is the first municipality in the province to facilitate the Ontario’s Senior and Elected Officials Workshop, which provided a review of our obligations in an emergency. We’ve also formed a Disaster Resilience Working Group to better understand and strengthen our response.
The City of Burlington is focusing on what we can do today and looking forward to making real, practical change for our city to keep our residents and their homes safe.
For more information about the flood mitigation study and the recommendations approved by City Council, please visit Flood Reports and Studies.
Thank you to everyone who gave generously to the flood relief effort and showed such tremendous resilience and determination following the events of Aug. 4 2014. We are so proud of the way this community pulled together.
With thanks
The City of Burlington would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to Samaritan's Purse and the Canadian Red Cross whose dedicated workers spent hours helping Burlington residents most affected by the flood.
In August 2014, 139 Samaritan's Purse volunteers worked 1,041 hours to assist with 51 clean up projects and the Canadian Red Cross mobilized its volunteers to visit more than 10,869 homes.
