GREECE, N.Y. — Lake Ontario’s rising water levels are causing basements to flood in Greece, and fire officials are warning neighbors about safety risks. Right now, the International Joint Commission (IJC) says Lake Ontario is just over 247 feet and is expected to rise about a half inch every day until May 15.
News10NBC has been tracking the lake levels for the past week. On Monday, News10’s Adelisa Badzic spoke with Lake Shore Fire Chief Jason France on Edgemere Drive about what neighbors should be doing to stay safe. France said the department has learned a lot in the last decade, especially in 2017 and 2019, and the most important thing he wants to stress is safety.
RELATED: Edgemere Drive residents brace for possible flooding as lake level climbs to 246.8 feet
“Our major concern is hydraulic pressure. So once we’re completely saturated, we’ve got the hydraulic pressure, you know, mixed with sand and fly ash that’s underneath the soil here. We’ve got they’re pushing on the exterior walls of the basement. So if we eliminate the volume of water in the middle, we’ll see basement collapses,” Chief France said.
France said another thing people need to be careful of is if the water gets to the point of the electrical box. At that point, nobody should be going into basements or crawl spaces.
If it does get to the point of the roads flooding, he said there the department’s response to emergencies will change.
“We’ll park on the pond side or drive, and we’ll actually dredging through the water instead of trying to bring the fire truck through, as folks have had to sandbag between the street and their homes. And if we bring the fire truck through, will actually cause a cascading effect, almost like a wake from a boat,” said Chief France.
Doug Dobson, a 50-year neighbor of Edgemere Drive and a board member for the Lake Ontario St. Lawrence River Alliance, said neighbors have already started pumping out their basements from the pond side, which is the same level as the lake. Dobson installed rapid water barriers to protect his home.
“Hopefully I said it the first time when I bought them. I hope I never have to use them, but the IJC made I made a liar out of me and now we’re preparing for flooding again in 2026,” Dobson said.
Dobson told Adelisa the water barriers were $6,000 and he’ll fill them with lake water, which will help weigh down the concrete if worse comes to worst.
On this day last year, Lake Ontario was at 245 feet, and the highest it got in 2025 was 246 feet in mid-June.
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