‘Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny’ commemorates great flood of 1980 in Ontario river town [Video]

Every spring hundreds of participants – many wearing colourful costumes and piloting watercraft that may or may not be seaworthy – head onto the Ganaraska River in Port Hope for the ‘Float Your Fanny Down the Ganny’ race that commemorates a 1980 flood that nearly wiped out the town’s historic downtown.

This year’s race is Saturday, April 12, 45 years after a weather forecast for March 24, 1980 for rain “tapering off during the afternoon” turned out to be far less than accurate.

When the weather started getting rough and the river started washing over the Walton Street bridge and threatening downtown businesses, police and town staff were called into action to try their best to evacuate residents.

Many were trapped when the flood prevented access, forcing them to wait it out through the night and hoping the building’s foundations would stand up to the water’s fury. Others had to …