'Surreal' flooding in sends motel into sinkhole

'Surreal' flooding in sends motel into sinkhole
Flooding washes out highway, cuts off in Wawa, Ont.

By Brian Kelly, QMI Agency



SAULT STE. MARIE, Ont. — Heavy rain and overflowing creeks and lakes washed away sections of the Trans-Canada Highway north and south of Wawa, Ont., sent a motel crashing into a sink hole and knocked out phone service.
The northern Ontario community of 3,000 people declared a state of emergency Friday as it dealt with the washed-out roads, stranded motorists and flooding at Lady Dunn Hospital.
“To see the extent of the damage was just surreal,” said Jordan Veldt, who couldn’t get to work Friday at the Wesdome gold mine because of the highway damage.
A home in Michipicoten Harbour, just northeast of Wawa, was washed into Brient Creek, which flows into Lake Superior, about 2 a.m. Friday.
The man and woman who lived there escaped unharmed. They were retrieved by a Wilderness Helicopters pilot later in the morning after the they waved a red flag on the beach near the lake, said Const. Amanda Huff.


Northern Lights Motel, 5 km north Wawa, “is gone,” said Const. Monique Baker of Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) in Sault Ste. Marie.
“It sunk into a sinkhole,” she said.
The 16-room motel, with two chalets, is closed for the season. No injuries were reported.
The Trans-Canada Highway was completely closed north of town at about 8 p.m. Thursday, Const. Huff said, with a pair of washed-out areas to contend with.
Police they don’t know how many motorists have been stranded between flooded areas since Thursday night.
“There’s not much out there,” where the motorists can take refuge, except for their vehicles, she said.
“There are sections of Hwy. 17 (Trans-Canada Highway) that are no longer there. Gone.”
Flooding to the south of the town washed out the highway, too, and that section was closed Friday, as well.
“With the amount of water that has fallen, a lot of the smaller lakes that are higher up that are dammed by beaver dams, those are giving away because of the volume of water that’s pushing against them,” Huff said.
“Normally where you have just a small runoff going through a culvert, these are above capacity for the culverts. That’s what’s causing a lot of the water to erode the road away.”
Hwy. 101 just east of Wawa has reopened, but police caution that, if possible, motorists continue to stay off the roads altogether.
Flooding also knocked out telephone service to approximately 1,000 Bell Canada customers in nearby communities of Godreau, Hawk Junction, Dubreuilville, Missinaubie, Mosher and Oba at about 8 a.m. Friday. 911 service was also down.
To get service back, Bell’s technicians have to get to an area affected by the highway washouts, so there is no timeline when that might happen.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in the area, and we hope this situation is remedied without lasting harm,” said Premier Dalton McGuinty in a statement.



'Surreal' flooding in sends motel into sinkhole - Canada - Canoe.ca


There are sections of Hwy. 17 (Trans-Canada Highway) that are no longer there


Wow!


People are losing homes, highways, an entire motel disappeared into a sinkhole. My heart goes out to these people.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the people in the area, and we hope this situation is remedied without lasting harm,” said Premier Dalton McGuinty in a statement.


FUH KWEW , Dalton.

Wonder how long it will take him to send help this time.

I wish that a big sinkhole could form underneath him.

That's what used to be the TransCanada.



This used to be the motel.

'Surreal' flooding cuts off Wawa, Ont. | Ontario | News | Toronto Sun



Flooding forces Wawa to declare state of emergency - Sudbury - CBC News

Wow.

the motel has turned into a moatel.

That's not all that bad by BC standards and most of the motel is salvageable.

Of course flatlanders will make a big deal of it but WTH ever happens in Wawa ON?

Wawa has always been a sinkhole.

Someone pee in your cheerios, Petros? Not very often you come across as a negative dork. Wawa is a nice place with good fishing and friendly folks. They used to have jobs too; hard working pulp and paper folks.

Oops I accidently said I approved of Nuggler's post-Oh well.

I used to put it to a broad from Wawa-strawberry blonde and Yes she was friendly.

Could be quite a while if his knowledge of geography is as bad as the person that wrote the article. One would have to live in Florida to call Sault St. Marie NORTHERN Ontario. Or perhaps never been out of Toronto.

Yup. Fishing is awesome. The people are awesome (especially the d'Allaire family) and I hear they finally got a Tim's down on the highway.

For me though I had a Bermuda triangle type experience with electronics that I've dubbed "the curse of the goose". It all started with a crapped out ECU, CC and debit cards that would only work if they felt like it and the theft of my hifi from the truck all on a Friday evening of a the Labour Day weekend. There is more but it just gets weirder and right now being damn chilly out I don't need another chill sent up my spine so I'll leave it at that.

You just ooze charm and class don't you?

Ever hear of the expression "If you don't have something nice to say, best not say anything at all."? I'm guessing your world would be dead silent if you followed that little axiom.

Well it's not Southern Ontario that's for sure, lol.

Wow, poor folks.

Depends on your perspective. To me a town must be over half way up the province to be considered northern. But we have the same problem here on the Island where cityots in Victoria, including news media will call Nanaimo North Island when Courtney is the geographical center so one has to be north of Sayward to be considered North Island.

That is also where it can get a tad damp at times. I have been in Holberg when it got 24 inches of rain in 24 hours.

Your mother dyed her hair?

It always boggled me to TS. It would seem to the media anyway that once you get into Winchelsea & Nanoose you are in the north Island region when it really should be central.

Of course you also have to remember that Winnipeg is the center of Canada yet the Easterners consider Ontario a western area while we from BC consider anything East of the rockies as Eastern. All about perspective I guess.

His sister.

The term I've heard repeated from BC residents is "back east".

The talking head on the weather channel refers to the Southern part of Ont. as "Southern Ontario". And West Que. as "Southern Quebec"

And we all gaddam know it's Western Ont., Southern Ont., Eastern Ont., and West Quebec.

It's tragic and sad and this should be a wake up call to stop contracting out of building of roads because they cut corners and charge a lot.

Just LOOKS old enough to be his mother.

To me Northern ON isn't northern at all. Toronto on the other hand is parallel to Cheyenne Wyoming which is a full 8-9 hours south of me as the crow flies.

I'm in SWO so all of y'all are farther north than me. Lol.

Anyway, it's not Northern Canada but it is Northern Ontario.

A lot farther.
It should be termed as western but hey, what do I know?

Unlike the sad sack gibberers here I actually born/raised in Northern Ontario.

FYI-anything north of North Bay is considered Northern Ontario.

True enough. So, in terms of north/south it's definitely north but more appropriately west. We are not in a rectangular province like some of you guys are. Lol.

I think it's called "desperate"....

That could be the only explanation.

Also, it's so classy when they "brag" about it later too.