Canadian rapper Drake shared a video of himself navigating through his flooded Toronto mansion on Tuesday, following a severe rainstorm that caused extensive flooding and power outages in the city. Drake, in a humorous Instagram post, captioned the video of murky brown water inundating a room with, “This better be Espresso Martini.” His luxurious home, known as “the Embassy,” is situated in Toronto’s upscale Bridle Path neighborhood.
In just four hours on Tuesday, Toronto experienced more rainfall than its average for the entire month of July. The deluge submerged city streets, closed highways and subway stations, and left tens of thousands of residents without electricity. Toronto’s Pearson International Airport recorded over 97 millimeters (about 3.82 inches) of rain, marking it as the fifth wettest day on record. The previous rainfall record for July 16, set in 1941, was shattered when 25.9 millimeters (1 inch) fell at the airport.
This summer, record-setting storms have caused chaos across the Caribbean and parts of North America. Hurricane Beryl, the earliest Category 5 hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, inflicted widespread damage in Grenada and Jamaica, killing at least nine people before causing flooding, rains, and winds in Texas. Beryl left over 2.5 million homes without power and resulted in at least eight deaths in Texas and Louisiana.
In Toronto, the storm led to nearly 1,700 calls for service and approximately 500 dispatched incidents by the Toronto Fire Services between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday. These included more than 50 elevator rescues and the extraction of over 20 people from cars and buildings due to significant rainfall. At one point, 167,000 Toronto Hydro customers were left without power.
Photos captured cars floating on a highway east of the city, and rain leaking through the ceiling at City Hall, according to the Toronto Star. The pedestrian tunnel connecting air travelers to Billy Bishop airport, located on an island, also flooded, the airport reported on X.
The severe weather has prompted a significant response from emergency services, and the city is working to address the widespread impacts of the storm.
