5 a.m. Tuesday 9th July:
I started writing this post yesterday afternoon around 4 p.m. (that part continued below) and normally I would have checked it late last night and posted it first thing this morning.
But things don't always go the way you plan do they? That sentence has a familiar ring to it!
Soon after we came into the house at around 4 p.m. the rains began again, but this time it was different. We experienced rain like we have never seen it before in this part of the world. In 2 1/2 hours we had 96 mm of rain (3.77 inches) and as of 10 p.m. we had received 123 mm of rain (4.84 inches), making it the rainiest day ever here. We live at the top of the street and water drains away from the front of our property, but we have a sloped area behind us and the water raced through our property like a raging river. The skies darkened. The drains couldn't cope with the amount of water and soon instead of draining it reversed abd began to come into our basement.
The whole basement quickly flooded and we raced to pull out electrical plugs and try to put things up to a higher place ... when suddenly the power went out and plunged us into darkness. That put an end to that, so we had no choice but to let nature run its course.
This is what we began seeing ...
It's a hastily made video and not too steady but it's how it began. As bad as the damage is, we felt lucky. We didn't have power until close to midnight, but we slept in our own dry bed and it's nothing that can't be remedied. Others have suffered far worse.
I went out to listen to the radio in the car at about 9 p.m. last night. People were stranded all over the place. Trains were stopped on the tracks with passengers waiting to be rescued while the water was already 3 inches above the floor. Roads are impassable all over the city of Toronto and Mississauga. A man who lived close to the lake was talking to a reporter and in the background you could hear what sounded like a water fall ... that was the river that had overflowed its banks and was pouring through his house. Cars in underpasses were instantly swamped and some were no longer visible beneath the water. Another lady was reporting that her basement was already flooded and so they opened the back door and the water was flowing out through there. At one of the train stations that would normally have continued on to take commuters home from their offices in downtown Toronto, the train was stopped so passengers had to leave the train and were starting to walk home ... many many kms. The reporter said he saw business men with their suit pants rolled up above their knees, carrying their shoes and briefcases and wading through the flooded areas as they began their walk home. And the stories went on and on ...
All our immediate neighbours are in the same "leaky" boat with water in their basements ... many much worse. The neighbours down at the end of the street have sewage that was coming up through their drains, showers and toilets as well : ( We ended up with nearly 3 inches of water over almost the whole 1800 or so square feet of our basement before the rains stopped and the drain was finally able to reverse and take water again and then the water level started to recede.
This morning's paper are here and here and here.
Meanwhile as I look out into the back garden this morning just as it is beginning to get light, everything looks lush and quite content. The birds are already singing reminding us that we have much to be thankful for and happy about. I'll be remembering that birdsong as we start to assess and clean up the damage today.
4 pm. Monday 8th July ... and this part is what I wrote before the piece above:
After the rains the garden looks lush and not everything is tattered and beaten down by the heavy rains (26 mm yesterday) we've been experiencing lately. Before the rains that are forecasted to return this afternoon we managed to get out and capture a bit of today's loveliness.
There's lots of activity on the yarrow flowers today - three different bees arrived within a few minutes, and I spotted the green sweat bee on the echinacea but he was off to another spot before I got a chance to get to him. And of course the borage attracted the most beautiful bee... what a charmer. We've seen the wasps attacking the butterflies before, but look at one of the photos ... under attack by an unidentified bee.
I've never really taken time before to look very closely at bees ... there are so many different shapes and sizes buzzing around here.
It's time to become better acquainted with them!
 |
 |
 |
 |
  |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
The bee sightings reminded me of an article that I read yesterday. It's so shocking that I'm at a loss for words.
I've posted it here with the links.
Over 30 Million Bees Found Dead In Elmwood Canada
July 1, 2013 by Arjun
Shortly after 50,000 bees were found dead in an Oregon parking lot (read more here), a staggering 37 million bees have been found dead in Elmwood, Ontario, Canada. Dave Schuit, who runs a honey operation in Elmwood has lost 600 hives. He is pointing the finger at the insecticides known as neonicotinoids, which are manufactured by Bayer CropScience Inc. This also comes after a recent report released by the British Beekeepers Association (BBKA) that recorded its largest loss of honeybees ever. You can read more about that here. The European Union has stepped forward, having banned multiple pesticides that have been linked to killing millions of bees. You can view the studies and read more about that here.
The loss comes after the planting of corn. Neonicotinoid pesticides are used to coat corn seed with air seeders. This results in having the pesticide dust blown into the air when planted. The death of millions of pollinators was studied by Purdue University. They discovered that Bees exhibited neurotoxic symptoms. They analyzed dead bees and found that traces of thiamethoxam/clothiandin were present in each case. The only major source of these compounds are seed treatments of field crops. You can view that study here (1).
Bee deaths are increasing exponentially. An international team of scientists led by Holland’s Utrecht University has concluded that, “large scale prophylaxic use in agriculture, their high persistence in soil and water, and their uptake by plants and translocation to flowers, neonicotinoids put pollinators at risk. This is some of the research that led to the European Unions ban of the pesticides, as mentioned and referenced earlier.
Can we really debate this much longer? The evidence linking pesticides to bee deaths is overwhelming. It’s not only bees, but an array of other insects as well. The last thing we need is more events to occur that companies can use to push the manufacturing and development or more genetically modified foods. One reason that has been used for justification of GMO’s is a food shortage, and we all know how critical bees are to our food supply. There is a huge conflict of interest here, the pesticides used to spray the crops that are killing the bees are developed by biotech corporations such as Monsanto.
Time to make the connections, time to speak up!
Sources:
http://www.thepost.on.ca/2013/06/19/bees-dying-by-the-millions
(1)http://extension.entm.purdue.edu/publications/E-53.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3250423/?tool=pubmed
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature11585.html
Discussions:
| Thread Title | Last Reply | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| Unreal by Sharon | Jul 9, 2013 10:06 AM | 3 |
Post a new thread about this blog entry:
