Heavy rains backed up storm drains and catch basins in the capital region Saturday, creating large puddles on streets and flooding basements.
Diluted sewage and stormwater also overflowed along shorelines in the core municipalities.
Paul Dukes, who works on the front counter at Saanich Rentals, said customer demand was heavy all day. “We emptied every single pump, dehumidifier and fan that we can in the place at least twice. It’s gone out, come back and gone out again.
“Even the parts guy on the counter had his basement flood.”
Perimeter drains were backing up into basements, Dukes said.
Sunday’s forecast calls for a 40 per cent chance of rain.
“There’s a big front that gave us all the rain,” said Greg Pearce, a forecaster at Environment Canada’s Pacific Weather Centre. “It has moved well off to the east now, so there’s no threat of any continuous rain.”
He said a cooler, unstable air mass just west of Vancouver Island was expected to arrive over Victoria on Saturday evening.
Greater Victoria was hit with pounding rain Friday through Saturday morning.
The University of Victoria had 47 millimetres of rain between 11 a.m. Friday and 11 a.m. Saturday, Pearce said. The airport recorded 24 millimetres.
High winds blew leaves to the ground and contributed to the clogging of drains, which led to flooding. Branches across power lines caused several outages around Greater Victoria. Thousands of B.C. Hydro customers in Metchosin, Langford, Colwood, Victoria, Saanich and Central Saanich were affected.
Large puddles formed on some streets, especially where leaves blocked drains.
Municipal crews were out in the early hours on Saturday, trying to open drains, while individuals used buckets to tackle puddles in the streets.
The City of Victoria is asking residents to help keep gutters, streets, sidewalks and storm drains clear of leaves to prevent clogging and flooding.
It also warned drivers and cyclists to watch for large puddles in curb lanes, on low areas of roads and at the bottom of hills, as well as areas with large leafy trees.
The heavy rainfall Saturday morning led to the overflows of sewage and stormwater, the Capital Regional District said. Sewage that was heavily diluted by stormwater flowed into the ocean at outfalls along the core municipalities’ shorelines.
The affected area ran from Finnerty Cove, near Queenswood Drive in Saanich, to Clover Point on Dallas Road in Victoria, and from McLoughlin Point west to Saxe Point in Esquimalt.
The CRD is collecting shoreline water samples.
As a precaution, public health advisory signs will be posted at beaches within the affected areas until sample results indicate that enterococci bacteria levels are below the recreational limit.
Because the sewage water may create a health risk, the CRD advised against wading or swimming in those waters, and said pets should be kept out of the water as well.
