Galt under water: 40 years ago today

Cambridge residents will remember this wet day in May. 40 years ago on May 17, 1974, Downtown Galt was submersed underwater.

The great flood even spawned a documentary, One Day in May, that detailed the rising river waters that caused $5 million worth of damage to local businesses.

Grand River Conservation Authority’s Dave Schulz tells 570 News what happened on that day.

“Two weeks of rain capped off with a two inch rain storm on May 16th and 17th that just overloaded the system. So, the water had to come out of the reservoirs, plus whatever water was getting on to the ground … and it just made its way downstream and flooded.” 

Schulz says that a lot of improvements have been made since that day. 24-million-dollars worth of dykes were built in Downtown Galt, and updates were made to the flood warning system, to prevent this from happening again.

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