By Paula McCooey, Ottawa Citizen, July 25, 2017
North Gower firefighter Joe McLaughlin had been up most of the night helping area residents to protect their homes from the record rain that hit the valley on Monday, but he never expected to wake up the next morning to a more dire situation than those he had left.
“It’s two feet deep in the backyard and this morning (my basement) was about four feet deep with the pumps I was able to get from work … I’m down probably about a foot now,” said McLaughlin.
McLaughlin and hundreds of residents in the small town and surrounding communities were dealing with the aftermath of a record 79 mm rainfall that fell throughout the day Monday. He said area residents told him they haven’t seen that much water in the streets since 1973.
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/record-rainfall-floods-north-gower-area-homes-fields-farms