A shift in the wind is all it took for Lake Ontario, swollen to near record levels, to once again overrun the lakeshore neighborhoods of North Greece, and beyond. 

Julia Riley drudged through shin-deep water on Edgemere Drive to check on her daughter's dream home, a new build at the northeast corner of Cranberry Pond. As she arrived, she couldn't stand on the back patio, for fear of being whipped out by six-foot waves that crashed through a break wall nearby.

"We found a repeat of 2017, only I think it's worse this time," Riley said. "They haven't even moved in yet, and already, this flooding is wearing away at the ground beneath their foundation and around their property. Massive flooding. Waves are pouring over the break wall."

Sights like those on Edgemere Drive were repeated from Dewey Avenue to Braddock.

The Town of Greece shut down Edgemere before noon on Tuesday, near the same time Monroe County declared a State of Emergency for homes exposed to Ontario's pounding fist.

Hip-deep water was reported at Edgemere west of Dewey. 

"It's unbelievable. You see it coming in and it keeps coming and coming. It just keeps coming and coming," said Mark Barrett, who watched his sandbags pushed into the driveway.

Kristyn Bellman had to carry her son to the bus stop through rushing water from the lake before the roads closed. The lakeshore home she bought from her grandmother filled with water at the front porch. 

"We've been in this property as a family for more than 30 years and we've never seen this kind of flooding," Bellman said. 

The consensus of those who lived along Edgemere was that Tuesday's sudden floods were worse than those experienced in 2017 — during a spring of record lake levels and stormy weather brought into question the actions of the International Joint Commission, the international agency charged with maintaining levels of the Great Lakes. 

"This is what you get when you have levels this high," Riley said. "When the winds shifted, we had a disaster. All due to the brilliant decisions of the former IJC members. They were more concerned about the environment than the homeowners."

IJC commissioners met with Greece, Monroe County and local government leaders Tuesday in a meeting and tour of the area planned before Tuesday's flooding. 

All Jane Riley could do was keep her feet moving through her daughter's washed-away backyard and hope the winds would shift again. 

"It's ruination, and all because of bad decision making," Riley said.