Heavy rain across most of eastern Niagara County in the last few days created flash flooding for some locations after a week of high heat and dryness.
Storm sewers overflowed on Market Street on Sunday afternoon as the area received 1.41 inches of rain, according to the RainDrop website.
Data taken on Sunday by the International Joint Commission found Lake Ontario’s water level at 247.31 feet, still under the historic high reached this week in 2019. Daily Lake Ontario water levels are the mean of measurements taken at Oswego and Rochester, and Port Weller, Kingston, Toronto, and Cobourg in Ontario.
In its weekly bulletin on June 12, the US Army Corps of Engineers stated, “All (Great) lakes are below record high June water levels by 18 to 35 inches.”
“I believe we’re looking for it to crest here at the end of the month,” said Mayor Greg Martin of the Village of Wilson. “It’s at the highest it’s been in a few years. We haven’t had any hydraulic issues with the sewage treatment plant. Overall, things are still looking good.”
Martin said residents haven’t raised any major issues about the lake levels recently.
“Obviously, we’re getting more and more of these storms,” he said. “Our storm sewers are handling it pretty well.”
Max Russell of Appleton, vice president of the Niagara Farm Bureau, said until Sunday, rain was spotty this month.
“I heard from a number of people along Slayton Settlement that they needed rain,” Russell said. “The first 10 days in June were so hot and dry and fields really dried out. Thursday, we got a random thunderstorm that dropped around 2 inches. That was right along Route 18. Somerset — half of it got hit and half of it didn’t. That was a bit much for us in Newfane.”
Russell said while the first inch was absorbed by the soil, there was considerable runoff.
“The ditches did swell up,” he said. “It was almost like a little flash flood during the 2 inches.”
Sunday’s additional rainfall across the county left Russell waiting for things to dry up on Monday.
While the wet spring created delays, Russell said most farmers were able to get into fields and plant during the dry spell early this month.
“I think there’s still going to be a decent amount of fields that didn’t get planted,” he said. “I have 6 or 7 acres of corn that I’d still like to get planted. We planted our last field of tomatoes last week. Most corn planting should be done. We’ll be planting cabbage for the next month and a half.”
Mark Crocker, Town of Lockport supervisor, said while no residents reported flooding, the town’s wastewater lift stations were at capacity Sunday afternoon.
“The lift stations are under an automatic phone system when they’re under stress, when there’s a lot of fluids,” Crocker said. “Jason Neden got six call-outs from the lift stations. There are 40 of them that push the sewer water toward Niagara Falls. Nothing failed, everything worked fine.”