West Carleton-March is Ottawa’s worst hit community
A half-dozen teenagers in rubber boots and yellow slickers pile out of the back of a pickup truck loaded down with sandbags as it pulls into one of the few driveways along Constance Bay’s Bayview Drive that hasn’t been swallowed by the river.
Longtime resident Aaron Guimond steps out of the cab and surveys the scene at the picturesque riverfront cottage owned by his friend and area city councillor Eli El-Chantiry.
After four days of rain fed the surging Ottawa River to nearly consume the home, and many of those around it, the wind has now picked up, bringing with it snow, and the white caps off the river are nearly lapping the cottage’s window sills.
An old car in the next driveway over is half submerged. A piece of an old barn door floats by.
“Eli asked me to bring a load of sandbags out here,” says a grimacing Guimond. “I don’t know what he wants me to do with ’em.”
There wasn’t much anyone could do in Constance Bay, one of the areas hardest hit by flooding that has displaced hundreds of people across the region and damaged hundreds of homes.
City officials said Monday that of the 310 Ottawa homes impacted by flood waters, 275 of them are in West Carleton-March.
“I think it caught everybody off guard,” said Guimond. “It’s been 17 years since anyone’s seen anything close to this. Every now and again Mother Nature kicks us in the butt, but this time she picked us up and punched us in the face a couple times too.”
Guimond and his volunteer crew eventually settle on using the sandbags to line Bayview Drive in an attempt to block the waves. Word has started to spread that the water is subsiding, or at least levelling off, but that’s small comfort to residents such as Eric Poisson, who lives directly across the street, inland from the river and on slightly higher ground.
“We’re just trying to mitigate the damage now,” he said, pointing to a driveway that was clear of water yesterday, but is now seeing the flood waters encroaching on his lawn and “creeping up” on the house.
But no matter how grim things look at the river’s edge, spirits remain high in Constance Bay, where an urgent call for volunteers put out over the weekend was met with such numbers Monday, relief organizers were turning bodies away by mid-afternoon.
“You get the real sense of community seeing the number of people who have come out,” said Poisson. “It’s unfortunate it takes an act of nature to bring a community together, but that’s what it’s all about.”
Volunteer firefighters in safety vests pair up to go door-to-door in the flood zone, checking on any who remain, while some of those who have been displaced seek temporary refuge at the local Legion hall, with a warm meal and dry clothes.
“The community is overwhelmed,” said El-Chantiry. “People have come from all over the city, all over the Ottawa Valley, and they have come here and we’re so grateful for all the help and support. Since the ice storm (of 1998), I don’t think we’ve seen such unity among people.”