COVID-19 restrictions may affect battle against Great Lakes flooding
Sandbagging faces ban under anti-virus restrictions
Officials are warning residents along the Great Lakes who may soon face flooding that it is more important to protect themselves from COVID-19 than it is to protect their homes and property from water damage.
All of the Great Lakes are experiencing high levels and more water is pouring into them as snow melts across the watershed. The International Joint Commission (IJC) has been releasing a record amount of water through the Moses-Saunders Power Dam in Cornwall in an effort to lower the level of Lake Ontario, but it remains high, largely due to a record amount of water flowing in over Niagara Falls from Lake Erie and the upper lakes.
More than 1,000 people logged into an IJC webinar on Friday, April 3 to hear U.S. Chair Jane Corwin defend the commission’s efforts to lower Lake Ontario without flooding Montreal, which is downstream.
“The reality is that we can’t stop the flooding,” Corwin said, showing charts illustrating record precipitation over the past several years has caused flooding in 2017, 2019 and most likely again this year.
