Torrential rain on Tuesday(July 16) triggered flash flooding in parts of Toronto, Canada's financial center, causing power outages, disrupting traffic and forcing airlines to curtail service, Reuters reports.
Toronto Hydro, the local power distribution company, said it was responding to scattered outages that it suspected were caused by flooding at a transmission station. At 3 p.m., about 123,000 customers were without power, it said.
Across the world, intense rain storms are becoming more common because of climate change, weather experts say, putting a heavy strain on infrastructure that in many cities is not designed to handle heavy, sustained downpours.
The Toronto Transit Commission, which operates subway, bus and trolley service, said trains were bypassing Union Station, the city's main rail terminal. Go Transit, which operates train service to and from Toronto's suburbs, said the flooding had caused some disruptions.
