What Is Going To Happen At The Border Now

It has been quite an exciting week hasn't it!  Given what has happened, the dispute over building the bridge between Windsor, Canada and Detroit, USA should now be considered over! 

Finally, about half a year after the time when I thought the Feds would make their decision, the Canadian Federal Government has now allowed the Ambassador Bridge Company to build its new bridge. Obviously, the Bridge Company is thrilled:

"Statement of Matthew Moroun, for Detroit International Bridge Co., regarding the International Bridges and Tunnels Act (IBTA) permit for the Ambassador Bridge Enhancement Project from Canada being issued: 

NEW BRIDGE ON ITS WAY TO DETROIT/WINDSOR CORRIDOR  

The Ambassador Bridge will now build North America’s longest cable stayed bridge next to the original span of the privately funded Ambassador Bridge which was the longest suspension bridge when it opened in 1929.

“We especially thank Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada for issuance of the final permit supporting our Company to make this major investment in international infrastructure. There have been many challenges our company has faced over the years in pursuit of this moment. We are now tasked with the duty to construct a privately funded bridge with the hard work of thousands of engineers, steel workers, construction experts that will be employed to deliver this once in a lifetime project” said Matthew Moroun.

Matthew continued:  “We know there are those who never thought our permit would be approved. Hopefully, now we can all come together and take pride in watching a new bridge rise across the shared border between our great nations”.

I have not written very much about this subject since that decision had been made because I was interested to see what the reaction would be. I wanted to take a look at what the opponents would say and do before I made any comments. I must admit that their reaction has been quite interesting. It is almost nonexistent for some strange reason!

What it tells me is very obvious. I first got involved in the border matter almost a decade ago when I joined the STOP DRTP movement.  I must admit that, after meeting a representative from the Bridge Company for the first time in the Company's Windsor office back then, I was quite sure that they would get permission to build their 2nd bridge.  What should have happened a long time ago has finally taken place now.  They now have permission to move forward.

I am not going to get into a long discussion about it. In my analysis of this file, I believe that the reason why the Federal Government has not acted before was that they were expecting that the Moroun Family would sell out its interest in the Ambassador Bridge to the Government sooner rather than never as it seems to be now! They thought that the Family would be concerned about how little money they were going to receive if there was federal competition and so were going to sell out quickly at a low price. That just didn't happen no matter how tough the competition was and no matter how long it took. The Bridge Company was prepared to fight them in order to preserve its interests.

To be direct about it, I think the Feds have finally realized that a new bridge must be built now in order to preserve cross-border traffic and are prepared to at least allow the Moroun Family to build it. In other words, at least a short-term victory for the Morouns.

Let's deal with a key issue. Does anyone really believe that the Feds are going to build their own bridge a mile or so downriver from the New Ambassador Bridge? Obviously not! The New Ambassador Bridge will cost about another $500 million to build. A Federal Bridge will cost somewhere between $4 and $5 billion to build. Seriously, does that make any sense at all to spend that kind of money? I hardly think so when the cross-border traffic is not doing all that well these days and has reduced significantly.

Of course, the conversation in the media seems to be suggesting these days that the Government Bridge will be started relatively shortly notwithstanding another further delay that has just been reported. Get real everyone. That is not going to happen at all! 

We ought to know that, if required, the Ambassador Bridge Company can start a lawsuit, probably both in Canada and United States to mess things up really badly, making the argument that a Government bridge can never be built. It will take some time, probably a decade or so, for the matter to go through the Court systems to the highest levels in both countries before a decision is reached. Won't it be fun if the Supreme Courts in both countries make decisions on the opposite sides! What would happen then?

What is your guess now, dear reader, in answer to this most difficult question: who could be a very desperate politician out there right now respecting the border matter. The answer seems obvious to me: MP Brian Masse. What is he going to do now so that he can be re-elected? Is he desperate now to take some action, regardless of what it is, to make it appear as if he is still important to his constituents? I will let you make your own decision on that one. 

Just remember that it seems to me that he had no idea of what was going to happen now. It appears that he was not informed in advance at all about the announcement recently. He had to do something subsequently and quickly in order to preserve his "importance" image. I am sure that he expected to gain some good publicity by what he proposed by his action to have a meeting set out last week.  Unfortunately for him, that did not happen. I am sure that he expected to gain a lot of publicity for himself by having important people in attendance to deal with the matter including reps from the Ambassador Bridge Company and various governmental levels. None of them showed up.  

There is a lot more that I could write about but why bother. If you want to find out what some of the big issues are these days and what is going to happen to them, take a look at the Gord Henderson column in the Windsor Star on September 16, 2070: "Approval of a new Ambassador Bridge span is a political sellout"

No, I don't believe that Gord is really being anti-Ambassador Bridge Company in his column. Rather, he is setting out some of the big issues and showing how the Bridge Company will be successful. Take a look at this for example:

"Does anyone, other than a naïve or self-deceiving bureaucrat, seriously believe the existing bridge, which has seen big money spent on new decking and other improvements, will be torn down while still serviceable and capable of providing redundancy?

By the way, bridge officials told this columnist years ago that the structure cannot be demolished because it qualifies for protected status under Michigan’s heritage laws. So what’s changed?"

I could write a lot more about what has happened and why but I choose not to do so. Rather, I expect that we will all see rather dramatic action being taken by the Ambassador Bridge Company over the next little while to get construction of its new bridge started as quickly as possible. I doubt that we are going to see any opposition by any level of government in either country to prevent it.

Any suggestion that all the traffic to the new bridge will go along Huron Church Road is absurd. Just go back and take a look at what was proposed over a decade ago for how traffic would cross the border. To be realistic, the construction of the new Highway to the border built now is a good part of what the federal system was supposed to be under the old plan.

I expect that, after the old Ambassador Bridge is updated, it will be used for the automobile traffic only while the trucks will use the new bridge. The auto traffic will probably still use Huron Church Road but the truck traffic will not be allowed to do so but will have to use the new road. Alternatively, and I don't agree that it will happen, all of the border traffic will have to cross over on the new bridge and the old bridge will just be there in case of emergencies.

I am very happy as it appears that this matter has now finally been resolved. Of course, I expect some silly actions to be taken by certain people to try to cause problems again but I don't take anything that they will propose seriously. The new Ambassador Bridge is a huge advantage to our area especially because our border crossing is so important to the economy. It should create lots of new jobs here in a variety of different industries if we finally figure out how to use it to our huge advantage and take the actual steps to do so.

Have you seen all of this new publicity on a completely different subject over the past little while? Now I understand why the Moroun Family is able to spend so much time these days to develop its ownership of the Michigan Central Station. 

Congratulations in their bridge success!

Summer Is Ending Soon

That's probably the biggest story out there right now. We are only a few more days until summer officially ends and Autumn begins. What will we face in weather conditions until we hit our next spring?

I have to admit that I have not really enjoyed the summer this year. Sure, we have had some very warm days but not a lot compared with other years. How often have we had a very hot day and then a very cool day immediately thereafter. I also remember a projection that we may have a very cold and snowy few months over the winter time and that is not something that makes me very happy either.

Oh well, at least it appears that were going to have a rather nice few days over the next little while so maybe we can enjoy some late summer days.

Of course, there is a lot for me to write about the border file given what has happened over the last week or so but I don't intend to do it yet. I just thought I would let the game play itself a little bit more before I give you my comments. I have to admit that I just don't want to write very much about the border file anymore because what I expect will happen should not be a surprise to very many people. The reality of it all is now, as far as I am concerned, that the Governments in both Canada and United States have tried so long and so hard to force the Moroun Family to sell out. They have failed miserably in accomplishing their objective. They have been forced finally to allow the Family to build its new bridge. I will go into more details about it shortly in another posting.

In the meantime, here are some comments of mine dealing with other matters that are taking place these days.

OUR BIG STORM

Well, it happened again. Another huge rain storm this year that caused terrible damage to this part of Ontario and where my family lives as well.

Even though there was a lot of rain that fell again in Tecumseh, we were fortunate that only a bit of water entered our Condo basement this year unlike what happened the year before. Last year, several inches of rain made it to the basement but our damage was not catastrophic. We were able to fix it up relatively quickly and at a relatively small amount of money. That money was covered by our insurance policy. With a couple of other huge storms present near the US this year,  I was concerned that a huge amount of rain might hit our area again as well. Accordingly, I decided to fix up our basement so that, if we were faced with another big storm, the likelihood of any damage here would be minimized.

As I am sure you know, dear reader, there is a local Government policy in place that will pay out some money to help one make changes. Regretfully, the sum is not huge, a maximum of $800, but it does help reduce the ultimate costs depending what has to be done. Without going into a lot of detail, I was able very quickly to comply with the Government rules about how to get a project undertaken, to select a contractor to do the work at a relatively good price, to comply with the rules about everything that should be carried out and then have the Government approve what has to be done. That work was carried out this week so that if some massive storm hits our area we should be alright in my residence in the future.  I hope so anyway.

Look at how big the damage is:

"Worst storm in Windsor history caused $175 million damage to city homes

Mayor Drew Dilkens revealed the staggering number Tuesday night during a meeting for Ward 1 residents at the South Windsor Recreation Complex. Dilkens stressed the damage estimate is only for private homes and does not include city infrastructure.

He added that at last count Tuesday afternoon, flooding had been reported in 6,116 Windsor homes." (Trevor Wilhelm, Windsor Star, September 12, 2017) 

That works out to about $29,000 worth of damage per home. That amount of money is just unbelievable. However, this was also disclosed by the Mayor Windsor:

"He also addressed another concern that not enough is being spent on the sewer systems, by pointing out the city has put $500 million into sewers since 2001. That includes $273 million between 2009 and 2016"

That works out to about $31 million a year. I will let you decide, dear reader, whether that investment was worth anything to minimize house damage considering what happened over the last couple of years.  Just think about how the local Governments spent tax money in other very big projects rather than in more sewer system projects.

The concern that everyone should have is what our future weather conditions will be like and what will be done to minimize any damage that could be caused by any heavy rains. It seems to me that this should be a major issue in the next election and that only those people who deal with the situation in a way that makes sense should be elected.

WHAT HAPPENED

There was a story that I saw in the Windsor Star about J.P. Wiser’s launching "its own brand centre at the Hiram Walker and Sons distillery." In that story, I saw this remark respecting what Windsor's Mayor had done in the past:

"Mayor Drew Dilkens could not be reached to ask what had become of talks with the company to try to keep the Canadian Club Brand Centre open. Dilkens went to Chicago in February to try to convince the company to keep the centre in Windsor." (Sharon Hill, Windsor Star, September 11, 2017) 

Interestingly, back in February I saw this which was started up by a private organization, Tango Creative.:

"There’s still hope,” Gordon Orr, CEO of Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island, said Sunday. “I think anything like this campaign is welcome indeed.”

Last Friday, a Facebook page was set up under the title Save the Canadian Club Brand Centre. Members of the public are being invited to share stories about the 125-year-old structure and spread the hashtag #savethebrandcentre.

“There are very few places that embody the heritage, history and spirit of our region quite like the Canadian Club Brand Centre,” states a post on the page.

“If you’ve ever visited this remarkable museum, you can appreciate its importance as a local destination which needs to be accessible to the public." (Dalson Chen, Windsor Star, February 12, 2017) 

The last article published on their Facebook page was on May 11.

Back in February as well, the Mayor had a meeting dealing with the subject and said this:

"The fate of the Canadian Club Brand Centre remains in limbo, though Mayor Drew Dilkens feels hopeful after meeting with company executives in Chicago on Monday that keeping the historic building open to the public is at least still a possibility.

“I was pleased with the outcome of the meeting,” Dilkens said by phone. “It was a very fruitful discussion. The door was not closed.” (Craig Pearson, Windsor Star,  February 13, 2017) 

MP Brian Masse also attended and said this:

"It was a good start,” he said, noting that further meetings will be planned soon. “There seems to be a good upfront approach to seeing if something can be done."

Wouldn't it be wonderful to know what has happened since that time thanks to the efforts of these politicians and how it ties into the J.P. Wiser’s actions. It would be nice to know if anything has been done!

Goodbye To The Summer

I noticed that it has been rather chilly over the last few days. Yes I know that we are in the month of September but it is still part of the summer months.

It just seems to me to be too cool, too early. I just hope that it is not an early symbol of what we can expect here this winter but I have seen the weather forecasting prediction early on that suggests that it is going to be extra cold here. I just hope it does not mean that we also get lots more snow here in the snow season.

I remember that I read that the weather forecast for this summer was not going to provide a detailed forecast of what the weather conditions would be like. For some reason, it was felt that it could not be done. That was accurate at least.  Seriously, the weather changed so quickly from very warm to relatively cool weather in very short periods of time.

Oh well. As long as we can keep the heat in our Condo unit up and our outside landscape firm cleans up the snow properly when it falls, then I think I can cope with any kind of cold and snowy forecasts. I will just stay nice and warm in our Condo until the spring comes back.

Given the cool weather right now, it gives me a reason to do some in-house writing and let you know what I have seen recently.

WHAT HAPPENS IF PRESIDENT TRUMP GETS ANGRY

Oh my! What can happen now to the Mayor of Windsor?

Seriously, will he be a hero using his Twitter account to go after the American President or has he caused a major problem for the Canadian Government? And himself. Take a look at this posting on Twitter:

I will let you, dear reader, make your own decision about this posting and what its consequence may be. 

As for me, I think it may well be a terrible mistake for the Mayor for doing this. I do say, even if the US President posts a naughty response back to the Mayor one day soon, that such a comment in itself is not going to be all that big a deal.

What I am concerned about is that the US President might believe that Windsor's Mayor is being used by the Canadian Government to be nasty to him in public on this border matter. In other words, his belief may well be that the Windsor Mayor was being used as the front by the Canadian Government to slam him publicly and to warn him that he better not do anything to hurt the Canadian Government's position!  Or else.

If that is what develops in his mind, I dread to think what the reaction of Pres. Trump might be on this matter and what he might do about it.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE LOCAL MP 

Poor Brian Masse. Even though he is an MP, he did not seem to be very involved now in what was going on with respect to the key matters involving the important border crossing that is in his riding in Windsor.

As you know, it was just announced that the Ambassador Bridge Company received Canadian Government approval to build its 2nd bridge between Windsor and Detroit. For some reason, he did not seem to know in advance that the announcement was coming out at all:

"Local MP Brian Masse is “shocked on the lack of transparency” that led to the sudden approval by the Trudeau government of a new span for Ambassador Bridge owner Matty Moroun to replace his 87-year-old crossing, he said on Friday.

The NDP member for Windsor-West — where the bridge is located — said he is among those in the dark as to why the twin-span project was approved after more than a decade of planning, meetings and preparation for the government-backed Gordie Howe International Bridge." (Dave Battagello,Windsor Star, September 8, 2017) 

We were told that the MP is setting up a meeting to deal with the subject:

"Masse said he's invited several parties to the meeting including the federal and provincial ministers of transport, Windsor's mayor and officials from the company that owns the bridge." (Kaitie Fraser, CBC News, September 8,2017) 

I am not so certain that too many people are interested in coming out to participate just because the MP may want them there. It does seem that some people may not be attending already. I wonder why:

"Masse has planned a public meeting for Wednesday and is hoping to have parliamentary representatives there to address community concerns"  (Maureen Revait,Blackburn News, September 11, 2017) 

Wow, it appears that a lot of people are not coming even though the MP would like them to be there to give him some publicity. Oh my goodness. Who knows, the MP may be in serious trouble already for the next election!

A WONDERFUL AUTOMOBILE

I was out for a walk the other day and saw this magnificent "older" vehicle parked. I am not sure who the owner was nor whether the person driving that car was a related person to the one whose home is where it was parked for a short period of time.

It really doesn't matter. I just wanted to post several of the pictures I took of this fantastic automobile.

Congratulations To The Ambassador Bridge Company

They must be thrilled. Finally! 

The people involved in working for the Ambassador Bridge Company for so long to get approval to build a new cross-border bridge between Windsor and Detroit--the Moroun family, Dan Stamper and Mickey Blashfield-- have to be so happy about what has just happened. 

As I am sure that you know now, dear reader, the Government of Canada has finally agreed to allow the Ambassador Bridge Company to build their 2nd bridge between Windsor and Detroit.  Nevermind the advantage that this will provide for the economy of Canada and the United States as a whole. It will be tremendously advantageous for the economy of our area! That is truly fantastic for us and will be another reason why our economy will grow significantly. 

I am NOT going to go into a very long discussion in this article about what has happened and what some of the issues still are. The reality is that what has just been announced is something that will allow our area to be able to prosper so much better for so much longer.  

As you know I am sure, I have not written a lot for quite a bit of time about Bridge Company matters involving the various Governments. I found it all quite tiresome. As I wrote too long ago: 

"Seriously, why should I do any writing on this topic since it is obvious, at least to me, that in this area the only group that can build a 2nd border crossing bridge legally is the Ambassador Bridge Company. As far as I'm concerned, that is the legal relationship between that Company and the Governments… 

In fact, in my opinion, it is so obvious. The Governments have not really built anything for so many years with respect to another border crossing notwithstanding the apparent need to do so… 

…considering that the volume of trucks crossing the border has dropped significantly by a huge percentage. Only the Ambassador Bridge Company project makes any sense of being built because of the financial costs involved. For the Ambassador Bridge Company project, the dollar cost is around $500 million. For the Government Bridge, it can be over $4 billion based on some numbers given out previously! If volumes have gone down so much and costs have gone up so much, then please tell me why the Governments are looking at building a bridge at all.  The Government Canada who would be paying for just about everything would lose a huge fortune considering that it will have to put up a good chunk of the costs which may never be recovered." 

Instead of playing more silly games over this, the Governments and the Ambassador Bridge Company need to sit down and work out together NOW what needs to be done for the future transportation requirements in this region. 

When that happens, who knows! All that is important today is to give to some Ambassador Bridge Company people our best wishes.  And have them get their project started already.

Another Flood Story

This is NOT a very enjoyable time in the year it seems.  I just saw a note of mine that said that we had some heavy rain in 2015 around this time. Last year around these days in August, of course, there was a huge flood and now this year, severe flood damage was done once again. 

The rain this time around, as we finally were told, was quite severe: 

"Few areas of the city were untouched by the storm. 

“The flooding was really city wide,” says Dilkens. “It wasn't localized to any given ward or any given street." (CTV Windsor,August 30, 2017) 

Oh sure, we have seen the comment made about this storm being a "1 in a 100 year" event but I hardly believe it when we have had such heavy rain over 3 years in the same timeframe. Are we now going to be facing more similar flood situations in future years around this period of time? 

I really wonder if any significant action has been taken since last year by our Governments at various levels to take steps to prevent this kind of flooding causing damage. I would like to know what was carried out if anything. Clearly, some significant action will have to be taken to prevent further damage over the next few years or else we will see more disasters. It would seem to me that Governments will have to act pretty quickly now or who knows what may happen in another horrific storm. 

I am not sure that I want to write a story about what has happened so far the way I might have done it in the past. Rather, there is an interesting number of matters that I thought I should talk about and give you my impression of what has gone on so far. 

By the way, I may as well get experience in writing these kind of stories. I may have to do it time and time again after reading this from our Mayor in a Tecumseh news release: 

"Tecumseh experienced another unprecedented rain event overnight on August 28, 2017. Initial estimates indicate that the Town received approximately 150 mm in six hours. In comparison, the storm event in September 2016 saw 175 mm over six hours and 195 mm over 12 hours. During the July 2010 flood event, 89 mm of rain fell in a 24 hour period. A 100 year storm event equates to 87 mm over six hours…

“Unfortunately these extreme weather events are a new reality and municipalities cannot install the types of systems required to handle this high volume of rain,” says Mayor Gary McNamara. “The Town is doing its best to improve infrastructure. This includes investigating impacts and potential improvements to the current system, planning for the future and implementing systems to store the rain water that falls at extreme rates. We also encourage our residents to take preventative action on their properties to protect themselves from flooding.” 

I must say that I was shocked by how many main streets were damaged this time around. I think it was even worse than the storm last year. Take a look at this comment: 

"Windsor police urged the public not to drive “unless absolutely necessary,” as many road surfaces had become submerged in several inches of water. Across the city, highly trafficked streets were rendered impassable. 

According to Supt. Brendan Dodd, at least a dozen major routes were affected as of 4:30 p.m., including the E.C. Row Expressway, Jefferson Boulevard, Riverside Drive East, Tecumseh Road West, Dominion Boulevard, most of College Avenue, and more." (Dalson Chen, Windsor Star,August 29, 2017)  

Who has the faintest idea about how many times more it may happen that would result in the terrible conditions we have seen last year and now this year once again? Just as importantly, does this mean that, under our systems now, we can do nothing further in the future to protect ourselves? If so, I would have thought that immediate action was required for fear of what would happen again if this took place next year: 

"We're drying out now but it certainly was not a good one," said Lakeshore Mayor Tom Bain. Bain said the municipal systems are simply not designed to handle the massive amount of rain that pummeled the region in such a short period. 

"Our systems were all based on the 1-in-100 year storm and now we have to go back and take a look," said Bain. "We've had two such storms within two years so we've got to go back now and see if we need to change that design system." (CBC News, August 30, 2017) 

In going through my files again, I noticed that my first email to my contact in our Condo management firm took place at about 2:55 AM in the morning when the disaster hit. In that email, I set out what had happened since I woke up a few hours earlier. I let her know about all the things I had done since 12:30 AM and all the people that I had called. As I said before, I had learned from the last flooding how quickly I had to act in order to get people to come and resolve any problems I might have had before they received tons of new requests for assistance. I was just not prepared to wait for weeks or months for help and fortunately, because of the quick action I took, I did not have to do so. 

One thing that I find astounding and cannot explain is how buildings close to each other have different things happen to them.  Apparently, a number of units in our complex had a bit of water damage in the units but a lot of them did not. The same thing happened where my daughter lived. She too had a small bit of water enter into her Condo unit but not enough to cause any major damage. Unfortunately, according to a comment that I saw someone make on Facebook, other units in the same complex had a huge flow of water going into their basements causing substantial damage. How can that be?

The same thing in streets next to each other. How can the homes in one street have so much water damage done to them while houses in another street nearby have none at all? I just don't get it. I also saw that the main street near me seemed to have a lot of water being gathered up in the roadway as the water came down, just like in the last storm.  But it all disappeared quickly for some reason when it seemed that the sewers on the street opened up to allow the water into them. I do not understand that either. 

I have to admit that I did a little bit of research last time around about putting in a backwater valve to protect the condo unit from water entering it but decided not to do so. After all, I never expected another major storm and did not want have to pay out so much money for nothing. What a mistake that was! I should have done what a number of our residents did after the last mess: 

"Since the September 2016 flood event, the town says that more than 500 residents have received funding to install a backwater valve and/or disconnect their foundation drains from the sanitary sewer system and install a sump pump. The subsidy program is still available and residents are encouraged to apply. The program pays up to $800 of the cost to install a backwater valve." (Kevin McQuaid Jr., Windsorite.ca, August 29th, 2017) 

There is no doubt that I am going to look seriously into doing something ASAP because I am concerned about more rainstorms coming to hit us in the next few years. I think our weather conditions have changed to the worst.  

What is going to happen now with respect to the $3 million to be spent on Christmas lights for Jackson Park? Is Windsor going to ask that the money be spent instead to help people with their flooding problems or is it going to argue that it should be spent for the big event that is going to happen at the end of the year? Mayor Dilkens and Councillor Marra take different positions: 

"Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens defended his decision to vote in favour of the expendiure saying he believed it to be a good legacy project. He said through good financial planning and prudent budgeting the city is in a position to be able to consider these type of projects.  

“Everything in politics is about timing,” Dilkens said. “We’ve been working on this for a couple of months and we just happened to vote on it before major flooding happened in Windsor. It’s easy political fodder for a lot of folks and they can throw it my way. I’m a big guy. But at the end of the day was it the right thing to do? Yes, I believe it was.” (Kelly Steele, Windsor Star, August 30, 2017) 

Here is what the Councillor said, which may help if he decides to run for Mayor in the next election if people do not agree with what the Mayor said: 

"Coun. Bill Marra voted against the expenditure and has signed the petition. Marra pointed out he’s not “opposing the concept, but the process.” He said normal practice for a expenditure as big as $3 million is for it to be tabled until budget deliberations which usually take place in November.  

“The whole process was flawed,” he said. “It should have be subjected to budget deliberations. We didn’t even have a return on our investment plan.” 

He said when the storm hit on Tuesday what it did was “underscored” that there are other priorities in our community that should be considered. 

“I’m not surprised at the outrage of the community,” he said. “This validates that it didn’t fall within the high priority of our community. The storm just brought more outrage.” 

I just wonder if Mayor Dilkens is going to run again anyway. Would this specific event hurt him badly if he does do so and perhaps cost him the election? 

Speaking of Mayor Dilkens, I found his reaction to what happened rather surprising. Take a look at these excerpts to see what I mean.   

At first, who could be worried about anything in Windsor given this quotation:

"Windsor fared far better than much of Essex County, with flooding reported at 59 homes. City Engineer Mark Winterton says anyone who had flooding in their home and has not reported it yet, should call the 311 Call Centre."  (Adelle Loiselle,Blackburn News, August 29, 2017) 

It seems that the Mayor did not take things seriously even though the number that he mentioned was just over 5 times higher.  Apparently, at first, he did not think it was an emergency situation and I don't know if he does even now. Here is what he said first: 

"The Mayor of Windsor is urging people to use caution as the city deals with street flooding he says is significantly worse than the deluge that swamped the city nearly a year ago…  

Dilkens said there have been 310 basements flooded in Windsor - just a fraction of the 3,000 basements that were flooded during the storm in September of 2016."  (Chris Ensing, CBC News,August 29, 2017) 

One just has to wonder how the Mayor could make such a statement when the number of flooded units seems to have grown rather large:   

"Windsor mayor Drew Dilkens is calling for help from the provincial government after the ‘largest single flood event’ in Windsor’s history. 

Dilkens says the numbers are up to 3,793 homes flooded after heavy rain hit the city Monday night and Tuesday." (CTV Windsor, August 31, 2017) 

Here are some different numbers that I saw they came from the Mayor as well: 

"The cry for help comes after a record-breaking rainfall doused Windsor-Essex Monday and Tuesday, flooding thousands of homes for the second time in less than a year. Windsor's 311 line received more than 4,074 reports of flooded basements by 4 p.m. Thursday, and that number is expected to rise. More than 500 basements were flooded in Lakeshore and about 105 basements were flooded in Tecumseh, while about 20 homes were hit in LaSalle.

"This is horrible," said Dilkens. "I'm not going to sugar-coat it. This is the worst flooding in the recorded history of Windsor." (CBC News,August 31, 2017) 

Strange though. I have not seen the City of Windsor declare an emergency the way it was done last year.  I just wonder if an emergency has been declared because I do not recall seeing this being done this time around. If not, to be direct about it, why should the Province get involved to help out City residents who may suffer horrific damages: 

"Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens is calling on Ontario's premier to create a provincially supported insurance program for residents who can no longer get flood insurance… 

When pressed for details on what he was hoping to see from the province, the mayor said he wants the government to step up and create a program for people unable to get coverage because their home has flooded multiple times." 

I must admit that I would have thought that the Mayor might be asking for some Provincial financial assistance now to help out citizens. 

As you will see, there are a number of interesting issues about which I have written. Clearly, there are all kinds of matters that need to be resolved. 

Just to remind you, dear reader, there was a crisis like this back in 2011.  I just happened to read a story about it the other day. There were 3 storms at that time that caused damage to many homes. It just happened again. What can we do to make sure finally that it never does take place again!

A Short Story On The Latest Flooding Disaster

I do not intend to write anything very long on this topic in this article. It is another horrific event that has caused misery to my family once again! To be honest, I find it so difficult to deal with especially because I have been involved again in this horrible situation so soon after the last event that we suffered. In my 72 years of life on this planet, I have only suffered this kind of disaster twice: last year and now this year around the same dates too. 

I am fortunate to what happened in our condo this time.  We only had a  small amount of flooding that appeared in our basement this time that certainly did not turn into the massive flooding that happened the last time to us in our new home.  It all started around 12:30 AM when I was woken up and taken to the basement to see the small stream of water that entered our basement by that time. Of course, I knew nothing about the rain when I was awoken since I usually go to sleep so much earlier because of the severe illness that I suffered before that almost resulted in my death. 

To be blunt about it, I was terrified that what happened before was going to happen again and that our house would be inundated with water one more time.  If you will recall what I wrote, I went down to my basement back then early on and saw no water in the basement at all. Yet, a short time later, I heard some water trickling I thought and entered our basement again. This time, so much water had entered that I could not believe it. We started experiencing major flooding! Obviously, when I went down to the basement this time around and saw so little water this time, I immediately remembered what happened in the past and was so worried about it happening again.  To be honest, I had difficulty coping with the situation. 

In the end, I stayed up about 6 hours overnight and then slept for about another hour. I got up again and stayed up most of the day dealing with this entire situation. I did a whole lot of telephoning in the early morning to the outside providers of services to us under contract to get their help. I gave them all notice of what happened and asked for people to come in immediately so they could see what took place and then provide the assistance they were required to give to us under our contracts with them. 

I was very fortunate that all of the people representing my service suppliers were fantastic! I dealt with the right parties. They all contacted me right away and discussed what had happened to my premises and arranged to have their people come over to check out what had taken place or to call me as quickly as possible. This included those who provided insurance coverage, who looked after my furnace, water heater and air conditioner and who had responsibility to clean up any disastrous mess in my basement caused by the water flooding. 

This time around, unlike the last disaster situation, I was not one of the first people to call them because many people apparently were already suffering problems with their homes and had been in contact with them in the night hours when I was asleep. Nevertheless, I must have chosen the right people to deal with because they all handled my situation so quickly and so wonderfully.  To be direct, if you would like to know the specific party that I dealt with that you might be interested in dealing with, feel free to contact me by email and I can provide you with some information about them. 

I am not going to go into all the situations other than to tell you that everything turned out quite well. People came to our condo unit quickly to examine our situation or we spoke in great detail over the telephone with relevant people. We were so fortunate that the actual damage that had happened in our place did not expand as quickly as before nor did the water that came in already cause severe damage to the equipment in the basement that had to be replaced as happened in one case previously.  We were assured that after our condo meetings/telephone conversations there were no significant concerns whatsoever that required them to be involved. 

That is all that I want to talk about today, dear reader. Obviously, based on what has been reported so far, there are some things that I want to write about that I am hoping will be helpful to you. However, after what we have gone through in our circumstances during and after the storm, I just need to take it to be easy right now and spend some time thinking about what has happened and what needs to be carried out subsequently. 

Do not worry, I will be writing about this topic some more.