Soldiers and residents at war with the rising tide
Exhausted crews give their all to protect homes as flooding reaches historic levels
Bradley Beaudoin looks as though he might keel over at any moment.
For the last 48 hours, Beaudoin’s been at war with the rising tide. He was in Île Bizard Sunday before dawn, piling sandbags near the shoreline, working through the cold, wet darkness to save his friend’s house.
By the time the sun came up, they’d built a five-foot wall to keep the muddy river at bay. The wall collapsed early Sunday morning.
“I worked on three houses with three buddies and we lost them all this morning when the wall gave way,” said Beaudoin, a tow-truck driver. “There are no words, man. There are no words. You try to console them but there’s nothing to say. Everything they worked for, they lost it all.”
On Saturday, Beaudoin drove his rig between Pierrefonds and Île Bizard, towing cars from the flood and pulling fire trucks out of the mud to help keep the rescue efforts alive. He said he hadn’t slept in two days.
“Anyone who needed towing, if the truck could make it, we’d pull them out. Free of charge,” said Beaudoin, who works for American Auto Centre in Pierrefonds. “We’re doing whatever we can to help. Eventually though, there’s just nothing left to do.”
Beaudoin looks defeated as he stands on a makeshift dam along the shores of the Riviére des Prairies in Pierrefonds. His eyes are sunk deep into his skull, he’s covered in mud and his hands shake as he takes a drag of his cigarette.
“I worry this whole street is gonna go if the water doesn’t stop rising,” he says.
For nearly a week, the people on des Rivières St. fought to save their homes from a flood of historic proportions. The first wave came in the night on Tuesday, cascading water into basements and cracking the foundations of homes along the riverbanks.
Donald McElligott said a fireman woke him up at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday to tell him about the impending disaster.
“I went into my basement and there was a foot of water,” said McElligott, while taking a break from dam-building Sunday to eat a cold bowl of spaghetti. “The water just came, nobody had a warning or anything. (The dikes) are helping big time. Since Thursday, the street has been clear but we have to be careful. The walls are starting to breach.”
The sandbag wall behind McElligott’s house burst Saturday night and his son Paul sprang into action.
“I hauled ass to get down here and we ran a sandbag team all night,” said Paul. “It was neighbours, friends and whoever could lend a hand. We worked until 1:30 in the morning. You talk about sleep, what’s that? ... Everyone’s burning out.”
When it became clear the problem was no longer manageable, Mayor Denis Coderre called the Canadian Forces into Pierrefonds, Île Bizard and other affected areas. About 35 soldiers arrived on des Rivières St. around 2 a.m. Sunday and got to work reinforcing the dikes.
“We’re just running up and down the street, trying to hold the line,” said one soldier, who did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the press. “All we can do right now is pack those walls with as much sand, gravel and mud as we can. We’ll work this thing to the bone.”
The first platoon was relieved Sunday morning by a group of 35 reservists. The men and women cobbled together shovels from the city, wheelbarrows from the neighbourhood, and started packing sand into canvas bags. Another 65 reserves will be in the area by Tuesday.
“Everybody’s very motivated to come here and give a hand ... the main thing we can do is save some houses from being flooded,” said Cpt. Frédérick Lavoie, commander of a platoon of reservists on site. “In this area, everything has held pretty good ... we’re fighting for these streets.
“Everybody that you see here all volunteered to be here. We came in, gathered this morning and everyone’s been anxious to get their hands dirty and their feet wet.”
One resident said the disaster has been exhausting and there’s a sense of fatalism setting in on the waterfront, but he’s also seen reasons to be hopeful.
“This is the kind of neighbourhood where people keep to themselves, but flooding has really brought everyone together,” said the man, who did not want his name published. “We’re pumping water out of each other’s basements, loading sandbags, helping people cart off their belongings. We’re doing what we can.”
By midday Sunday, the neighbourhood was running like a finetuned machine. Canadian Forces commandeered a bulldozer, filled it with gravel and formed an assembly line to reinforce the porous dikes. A few dozen water pumps rattled and screamed as they drained water from the street and back into the river.
And city workers dumped payloads of sand in driveways, struggling to keep up with the efficiency of the weekend warriors.
But if the levees do break, residents have been warned not to stay and fight it out. Though water levels were expected to peak Sunday and stabilize through the night, there’s no accounting for a potential crack in the homemade dams.
“The police came by, they told us to have our bags packed in case the dams burst,” said Julien Montpetit, whose parents live on des Rivières St. “If that happens, we’re jumping in the car, turning on our pumps and getting the hell out of here.”
Anyone who needed towing, if the truck could make it, we’d pull them out. Free of charge. We’re doing whatever we can to help.