SooToday.com assignment editor in Toronto flood

As we started to pick up speed on the Gardner Expressway, we were relieved that the heavy rain hadn't caught us in traffic because it was getting hard to see at times.

The wipers couldn't keep up with all that water pelting the windshield in sheets for short bursts.

The rain kept alternating between pelting and nothing during the drive out to Mississauga.

When it wasn't raining too hard, the glimpses of Lake Ontario we could catch through the trees and just beyond Lakeshore Boulevard were pretty.

By about 3:30 p.m. we passed under Burmathorpe Road and water was starting to collect on the 427 (the area shown in the photo above).

Driving was becoming a bit hazardous and some cars had pulled over to the side of the highway, but we decided to push on through. 

It was just before 4 p.m. by the time we passed Pearson Airport and the sky was very dark with heavy clouds and rain. 

We had other things on our minds, though, and were talking about our critically ill family member in the hospital so we didn't turn on the radio to see what was going on. 

The weather didn't seem very serious, anyway.

We see bursts of heavy rain and dark clouds all the time.

No big deal, right?

Actually, it turned out to be a very big deal.

The weather station at Pearson Airport reported Mississauga was drenched in 123 mm of rain that fell in just a few hours.

That's more rain than the city usually gets in the entire month of July.

The rain started to come down hard and steady as we got in the house in Mississauga, so we talked about where to go for food instead of trying to light the barbecue.

At almost 5 p.m. we decided to turn on the weather channel and see what was going on because it was too dark to see in the house and the sky was sort of an ominous greenish gray as sheets of heavy rain pelted the house.

The rain was coming down so hard on the house we actually had to raise our voices to be heard above it.

I joked that we may have to go hang out in the basement a while if this keeps up because it looked like some nasty storm clouds overhead - the sort of storm clouds that dropped a lot of rain and sometimes spawned tornados.  

As the picture on the television took shape, the reporter on The Weather Network was telling people to stay in their homes and not go anywhere unless they had to because the heavy rain was flooding some streets and causing power outages in the greater Toronto area (GTA).

It didn't seem to be that bad where we were so we decided to go for Japanese food.

As Des locked the front door to the house the next door neighbour came out of her house to see if he had power at his place.

His power was off as was power to more than 80 percent of Mississauga but the rain seemed to be letting up and we figured it would soon be over.

The traffic lights, street lights and houses we passed were all dark but drivers were courteous and careful so we made it safely into the small area of Mississsauga that wasn't in the dark. 

Sushi Sushi was shining like a beacon and we dashed inside before the rain started falling heavy again.

After a great meal we went back to the dark house through eerily deserted streets and spent the next few hours sharing family memories, catching up on what we've missed while we were apart and making plans for what we should do - all by the light of the candles.

Finally, about 11 p.m. the power came back on and we checked the internet to see what had happened.

We were floored.

Apparently, almost in our wake the water had crested behind us as we drove out of Toronto.

A GO Train in the Don Valley was flooded (not the one I saw), the passengers trapped, and a marine unit was still rescuing them from the train.

Unknown to us while we were on the highway, areas of the 427 had flooded almost right behind us and Lakeshore Boulevard West was littered with cars submerged to their roofs. 

We were on high ground in Mississauga so we watched the water rushing through the streets but didn't suffer any flooding and we knew the hospital was in a similar situation.

Our family member was on a breathing machine so we worried briefly that the hospital may have lost power but Des assured us it had emergency generators. 

As we surfed the internet for pictures and watched the images on the news it started to dawn on us just how close we came to being stuck in the water rather than enjoying each others' company by candle light.

We recognized scene after scene of flooding and Des confirmed for us that we had passed through that underpass, tunnel or dip in the road on our way home between 3 and 4 p.m. that day.

Because we left the hospital in time to avoid the rush hour, we also managed to avoid the flooding by a margin almost too close for comfort.