More variability in conditions over shorter periods of time is pushing Lake Ontario - and all of the Great Lakes - as high as ever recorded in wet years, conditions that arrived only a few years after water levels were extremely low. Drenching rains, wet winters, warmer air and water temperature, less ice cover and more runoff throughout the entire Great Lakes basin, scientists say, have formed a meteorological cocktail that has contributed to unprecedented lake levels, flood-producing storms and the degradation of the shoreline, both natural and developed. The double-barreled floods caused millions of dollars of damage, leaving businesses, homes and parkland soaked, eroded and destroyed.įlooding is the most conspicuous example of how a changing climate is having a profound effect on Lake Ontario. Two years later, the lake swelled again to historically high levels, following another period of heavy rains and - in the eyes of many - exacerbated by a new international regulation plan. From Captain Jack’s and the vacation homes on Greig Street to the town’s wide sandy beach, few areas escaped the damage that storms and a surging lake caused throughout the spring and summer of 2017. “You’re fighting to survive.”įrank’s restaurant was one of many businesses and homes that suffered flood damage in Sodus Point, an upstate New York town of about 900 on Lake Ontario’s southern shore, two hours northeast of Buffalo. “All of a sudden, water’s coming through the floors, through the walls, flooding the restaurant,” Frank said. Water spilled across the wooden deck, a sun-soaked spot popular with beachgoers and boaters, taking aim at the kitchen and the bar. On Mother’s Day three years ago, Tom Frank was at his bayside restaurant, Captain Jack’s Good Time Tavern, when a brimming Lake Ontario surged onto the back patio.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |