The Telegram (St. John's)

‘One thing after another’

Fort Mcmurray residents assess flood damage

- VINCENT MCDERMOTT

FORT MCMURRAY — Residents and business owners began assessing damage from floodwater­s on Friday, when the municipali­ty suddenly announced people could start returning to their neighbourh­oods.

For many, it became clear the damage was worse than expected as they waded through sewage and threw out almost everything they owned. It will be months before many buildings will be safe. Others may be torn down.

“It’s too much. It’s just too much,” said Colleen Majeau, who lives on Poplar Crescent. “Downtown was saved during the fire. With COVID, we’ve done our best to try and deal with that. Now the flood? I don’t even know if there are words to describe how devastatin­g it is.”

MAYOR WARNS OF FINANCIAL RUIN FOR MANY HOMES, BUSINESSES

An estimated 1,230 homes and businesses have been damaged. Keyano College describes the damage to the Syncrude Sport and Wellness Centre as “catastroph­ic.” Draper remains closed to the public. The municipali­ty will keep supporting people living in camps and hotels until May 10.

“The average person that I saw when I was walking around downtown had damage in excess of $100,000,” said Mayor Don Scott on Saturday afternoon. “After everything going on, this really came during the worst of all circumstan­ces.”

Scott says almost every homeowner and resident he met on Saturday was uninsured or underinsur­ed for flood coverage.

A plan to get residents to clear homes of debris was stopped when the municipali­ty learned many flooded homes built before 1990 may have asbestos.

“Without federal and provincial help in this situation, there are going to be people facing financial ruin,” said Scott. “It’s quite a bad situation. There’s a lot of damage and not a lot of coverage.”

“As we begin a lengthy recovery process, I want to assure everyone who has had their homes or businesses damaged in these floods that there is assistance coming,” he said during a Friday afternoon press conference. “Disaster recovery programs are intended for exactly this type of situation.”

RENEWED CALLS FOR FLOOD MITIGATION

In Waterways, many people returned to see homes destroyed by the May 2016 wildfire now damaged by the flooding.

In the Ptarmigan Trailer Park, most mobile homes were high enough off the ground that flood waters did not reach the main unit.

Jeremy Laporte, owner of Montebello Homes, was driving through Waterways pumping peoples basements and talking to people about recovery.

As of Friday evening, at least 10 people said they were not insured.

“There’s Covid, fire, oil prices and now this. Can a town take anything else? It’s really hard,” he said. “I’ve been here 20 years and this puts enough stress on anybody.”

At the time of the flood, the municipali­ty had already spent $6.5 million on flood mitigation efforts. Between 2020 and 2025, Wood Buffalo plans to spend $136.5 million on building a combinatio­n of flood walls and berms.

Deputy CAO Matthew Hough says future work will include extra sections of berms starting this summer.

“More work needs to be done to keep the lower townsite as protected as we can make it,” said Scott. “Council is going to have some pretty serious decisions to make about what steps we’re going to be taking.” Copyright Postmedia Network

 ?? POSTMEDIA NETWORK ?? Items are thrown out because of water damage from the flood at a home in downton Fort Mcmurray, Alta. on Saturday, May 2, 2020.
POSTMEDIA NETWORK Items are thrown out because of water damage from the flood at a home in downton Fort Mcmurray, Alta. on Saturday, May 2, 2020.

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