Spring run-off in January

A January thaw is not unusual around here. What happened in Southern Ontario last week was no normal January thaw and it hit this area very hard. Combine thigh-deep snow with three days of heavy rain, high winds and temperatures well above freezing and what do you get? Flood conditions! Not only that but the Huntsville area was one of the hardest hit in widespread storm-related power outages, so anyone with an electric sump pump wasn't getting much help. The power was out at my house for about 30 hours over Wednesday and Thursday.

Huntsville was even featured in national news outlets like the Globe and Mail and CBC television (scroll down the list of videos until you see the Huntsville story) when a neighbourhood was evacuated.

My colleague Randy Mitson has posted some good flood updates on the AO Retail Blog as well.

Local photographer Rob Stimpson hiked in to Ragged Falls on Friday to see what was going on there and sent us these two comparison shots:

Ragged Falls on Friday, January 11, 2008

Ragged Falls in October, 2008