It’s just dawned on us that many are ending up here via other sites. We are long-time Lake Muskoka cottagers (and islanders) who are now permanent residents. We’ve been in your shoes before, watching something horrible transpire from afar, and been dying for information that is relevant, particularly to cottagers. As such we are attempting to communicate what is transpiring on Lake Muskoka a few times each day (and frankly are exhausted never having imagined this would go on this long!) Keep up to date on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter as we attempt to communicate what’s happening as it unfolds …and if you’re new you can catch up there too as you’re 6 days behind on live updates with VALUABLE information.
Muskoka Flood Briefing
(Day 7 -April 29, 2019)
- The ice STILL has not fully receded from Lake Muskoka and wreaked havoc on Wilson Island and I’m sure others last night. There is a ginormous sheet filled with docks and other floating debris still at the South end of the lake that has the potential to do further damage tonight. We are NOT out of the woods by any means yet. Zoom in and there are at least 4 docks (1 with whips below)
2. The inbound stream at the river is FAILING. The trees along the banks of the Muskoka river en route to Lake Muskoka are collapsing. This transpired today near Santa’s Village and home to the ship the Peerless II which is now lost among the mess (photo courtesy of Santa’s Village Road Facebook page)
At the mouth of the river onto Lake Muskoka on either side (Alport Bay & George Road) properties look like this.
PLEASE understand this may very well be the first time some of these owners are seeing their properties and we have NOTHING to gain by sharing these rather are trying to communicate the widespread destruction though to varying extents. We simply believe that it’s better to know now so you can plan accordingly, especially since we could very well get another foot of water before the flood recedes.
Last night the wind picked up, temperatures stayed cold and the remaining ice in Lake Muskoka caused further damage. Recall this was a large sheet of approximately 6″ of ice yesterday.
Some structures escaped miraculously while others were hit hard
Completely mangled and the extent of the damage won’t be known for weeks.
It is SAFE to assume that boathouse, boat port or not your Muskoka properties will have damage to some extent. Docks got hit…
Despite the barrels…
Approaches and stairs to them are tweaked…
Corners of docks and boat ports are lifted …
Boathouses were hit by ice…
Some got hit harder than others….
And others just totally destroyed (to the right of the obvious and lighter boathouse)
The most common problem faced right now is the top decks of docks have popped off their cribs and are floating, when in fact the top of them should be 2 ft below the water line.
Unfortunately, we still know of ice sheets on the lake tonight around Beaumaris and the North end of Wilson Island and there’s more still more water on the way.
Here’s a recap of exactly how much water Lake Muskoka has received since the annual spring freshet commenced.
And here it is again broken down into by inches per day – the average since we started daily flood reports being 3.16″ of water per day.
See more visuals of ice damage around Lake Muskoka here. And if you aren’t up to date on the 2019 Flood Facts catch those here too.
[…] PS If you’re new to cottaging or flooding and want to see the destruction of 2019 I wrote about them on our building site back in 2019 here or here […]
[…] PS If you’re new to cottaging or flooding and want to see the destruction of 2019 I wrote about them on our building site back in 2019 here or here […]
Hello Everyone. I am a property claims consultant with Sobel Public Adjusters. We recently settled a claim where over water structures(boat houses) were damaged by the floods and repairs were denied by the insurance company. We are excited to announce we were recently able to get this claim over turned and the owners got full replacement costs for the repair. We will review any situation at no cost to see if we can be of any assistance. For businesses we will also quantify business interruption claims. We are licenced public adjusters which means we work for you the policy holder, not the insurance companies. At this point you have nothing to lose by contacting us for a review of both your situation and your policy. If you are experiencing these issues with your insurance company please contact me for further information.
Looking forward to helping you,
Shawn W. Elliott
Property Claims Consultant
Detective (Ret.), Toronto Police Services
T: 416-975-1991
C: 289-259-3611
E: shawn@sobeladjusting.com
W: http://www.sobeladjusting.com
Canada’s Leading Public Adjusters
Your yellow moose survives-we were out Tue.
Thanks Ian! Glad to hear the moose survived
Have you all seen any drone footage floating around? I can’t believe _someone_ hasn’t done it yet. We’re part of the crew that slums it at Crown Island near Beaumaris, and I’m terrified about what we’ll see.
Thank you so much for posting this.
Could the flooding have been reduced if the MNR had started draining the lake much earlier in the spring? It appears to me that there is gross mismanagement of the inflows and outflows of Lake Muskoka.
The consequences will be hundreds millions of uninsured damage.
There are not enough contractors in Muskoka to handle the repairs.
Family’s been on the lake 84 yrs.-I’ve lived here full-time 17 yrs. Was a lot more snow N. of here this Winter than normal-Lake wasn’t drawn down even as much as last year. With stop logs slow to be pulled @ Bala=a recipe for disaster. Dams are a human construct/humans control them. Costly errors get made!
Thank you for showing us. Still looking for photos of my yellow moose on north end of Browning. Feel silly worrying about Admiral Antlers when so many are suffering so much damage.
Your yellow moose survives-we were out Tue.
While Mayor Smith has been very visible and keeping us informed, where are the morons from the MNR while all this is happening??.
They haven’t said a word. They’re probably sitting at home with dry feet, still collecting their pay check. It’s disgusting!
Great job, guys!
Gracias as well for all your efforts, seems you guys will be very busy next ? Years and we will also need your help
Most welcome … building was insanely busy as it was pre-this so going to be an interesting road ahead to say the least!
Wow, thank you for the amazing updates Kelly. I hope you’re holding up ok.
Thinking of all our friends and family with properties in Beaumaris and all across Muskoka.
Most welcome- only been a million years! Hope to run into you on a dock this summer.
do you have any photos of the boathouse (brown two storey with metal roof) at the end of the bay on Wilson?? it’s just out of sight of the two storey boathouse pictured beside the one storey damaged green boathouse with copper accent. Pls let me know
Hi Kelly. It was totally iced in so couldn’t get any closer or would have taken a pic. From where we were we couldn’t see fully but it was certainly standing as opposed to the one in front which was severely hit. The major issue is the ice was still there Tuesday and may be currently so it’s a full TBD. Sorry we can’t confirm – hang in there
Hey Kelly … no not yet – bay was iced in so couldn’t get around that point. Sorry
We really appreciate seeing the pictures and all the data. Thanks so much. As islanders on Rankin Island we can do nothing but wait & hope for the best. Keep up the good work…much appreciated!
Most welcome …. as things are hopefully starting to crest we’ll have a few days of pause but going to be a whole lot of strategy as it goes back down trying to get boats to land back in slips etc. Rankin seems to have faired better than others although we have not made a full and thorough lap yet
Thank you for all that you are doing, amazing job and much appreciated!
most welcome