St. Catharines declares state of emergency after flooding

RETURNING TO OUR TOP STORY TONIGHT...THE FLOODING IN NIAGARA.LET'S GO TO ST. CATHERINE'S NEXT WHERE THEY'RE DEALING WITH A SECOND FLOOD IN A WEEK.MAYOR MATT SISCO DECLARING A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND SUPPORT BACKED BY THE PROVINCE OF ONTARIO.DANIELLE DEGRAD JOINS US LIVE IN STUDIO TONIGHT WITH THE DETAILS.

an organization who offers resources in times like this.Welcome news to affected residents in the area who are cautiously optimistic.

It became a holding area after the first flood for a lot of the garbage.You can see all the flooring that's been torn out of the basement is in here.

This is how it started with the first flood at St. Catharines Mayor Matt Sisco's house.After the second dumping of rain yesterday, Mayor Sisco describes the second flood as much worse and called the state of emergency.

The state of the emergency is us saying we have now exhausted all of our opportunities, all of the things that we can do.We need additional help because there is still significant work that needs to be done.

Mayor Sisko is experiencing this firsthand, showing us the damage here in his own home, while fielding messages from the community.This morning he spoke to Premier Doug Ford, who offered support in the way of resources, but no confirmed support in the way of dollars.Emergency Resource Group Ontario Corps will deploy resources to the City of St. Catharines as soon as possible.

The premier expressed, you know, sympathy for what's going on here and identified the resources.He's speaking to Minister Dunlop, who's in charge of emergency preparedness, about seeing what resources can be deployed here.No infrastructure is designed to handle that amount of rain.

Retired climatologist David Phillips says the amount of rain we've receivedin the last two weeks is approaching half a year's worth.He's deeming the situation in Niagara as a multi -million dollar disaster for the region with the amount of damage to infrastructure and and property loss.The reason for this intense level of rain, he says, is due to climate change.

What we're seeing now are these thunderstorms are standing right over top of you and they are just drenching you with all of this rain in a short period of time.And again, The drainage systems cannot take that amount of rain.

There's not a city in Canada that could have managed the water that was collected in both of the events.

Residents on Duncan Drive are still cleaning up debris from the first flood while dealing with the amount of rainfall in the last 24 hours.Erin Cotton says her $50 ,000 from insurance may just cover expenses and believes there's a lesson to be learned here.

These events have highlighted some serious flaws in our current infrastructure.

As far as we know, we're 25 ,000, and it's not going to even come close to replacing anything.

Just down the street, Jessica Gunn and her family are concerned with rising costs and how they will recover.

Just got our fridge the other day, and unfortunately, the water was rising so fast.We tried our best to try to save that.

I've been flooded out.I've been hearing about it, reading about it, St. Catharines and Niagara Lake, and now I get a taste of it.

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati says the downpour in his area was like a winter blizzard from all sides.Mayor Diodati says city staff measured 127 millimeters of rain yesterday, but reports it is now retreating.Thankful for the support from Mayor Matt Sisco and community.

I love Mayor Sisco and he offered a pump, but luckily, you know, my neighbor across the street gave me one of his pumps.

The support to the City of St. Catharines from the province has no timeline but is expected in the coming days.