Tragedy can be heartbreaking, and the Zhengzhou floods in China’s interior Henan province on 2021 Jul 20 is no exception. Within 3 days the area received a year’s worth of rain. This massive rainfall in such a short period of time is a natural disaster. What multiplied this natural disaster were human errors that multiplied the death count. Further, after the disaster and death, to threaten and assault news reporters for reporting on the news is incomprehensible. People need to know what happened so that it does not happen again. Yes, face might be lost in the short-term, but so many people were killed, who did not have the choice to lose face, instead losing their lives. It did not need to be this way.
City of Toronto potential flood area, for a 50 foot or 15.25m rise in water level from Lake Ontario, which occurred in Houston 2017 hurricane Harvey. Map changes by Don Tai
I was wondering, I am sure like many others, what would happen if the City of Toronto had a flood similar in height to Houston 2017 caused by Hurricane Harvey. Who would get flooded and who would remain dry? Is the City of Toronto largely at risk? Are we ready? Unlike Houston, Toronto is not flat. We also do not have hurricanes or tropical storms. That being said, let us try to analyze a topological map of Toronto and see how we would fare. As I live in Scarborough note that Scarborough has the Scarborough bluffs. My area of Scarborough is 235m above sea level. As Lake Ontario is 75m above sea level, we have a buffer of 160m or 525′. I think we are safe from a flood risk.
