Waters recede, frustration mounts
Drenched trailer parks, golf courses dealing with ‘a hell of a mess’
WEST MONTROSE — Dan Houghton fought to fix his broken power generator on Monday afternoon.
This Birch Street section of the West Montrose Family Camp trailer park, just a soggy street up from the banks of the Grand River, was still without electricity following Friday’s flooding that blew out a park transformer.
Three days later, he said, power was still a priority for weary residents.
“It’s a hell of a mess out here, brother, I’m tellin’ you,” said Houghton, a 51-year-old transport truck driver who just put a new $90,000 park model trailer on his camp site a month ago.
Then, on Friday afternoon, the waters overflowed the banks of the Grand, crawling more than two streets into the trailer park, he said.
A massive 100 mm deluge of rain along the Grand River watershed north of Grand Valley had taken just two hours to fall. A surge of water was due to hit nearly-full reservoirs, mainly the Conestogo and Shand dams, the conservation authority said.
“You could put it in the context of turning on the tap at the top of the watershed,” said GRCA spokesperson Cam Linwood.
Luckily, no further taps added to the swell along the way. But still, the water was overwhelming in some parts, including the West Montrose trailer park where Houghton had been on site for 15 years, including the last five on Birch Street.
At one time, the 6-foot-tall Houghton stood by his backyard fence as water churned around him. “I was up to my armpits,” he said. Houghton and wife Carrie have a winter apartment in Waterloo they can go back to. They did so on the weekend, as the waters receded back to the Grand.
But the damage is done. Their back bedroom had three feet of water in it. Even the kitchen in their 42-foot trailer, a retirement investment, was flood-
When I saw the water outside the door I thought I was going to die. I was scared. Really scared. — GLORIA HOULE
ed. Their shed was destroyed. They have an insurance company to fight with. But at least they have a dry apartment in Waterloo. Others at the trailer park aren’t as lucky.
“There’s a lot of guys in here that don’t,” Houghton said. “They sublet their apartments for the summer. And they have no place to live. There’s five or six guys out here living in their car.”
Houghton is angry. He’s upset with his insurance company and frustrated with the conservation authority’s handling of the situation.
“Fine, it’s only a trailer park here and this is a luxury item,” he explained.
“Yes, we’re not as important as houses. But this is still devastating. This is a lot of heart and soul that we have into this place.”
By Tuesday morning, the conservation authority may lift the ongoing flood warning for the southern Grand River. But Linwood says the water safety message for the entire watershed will remain in place. Flows are higher than normal. Debris is a concern. The river is deemed unsafe for recreational activities at this time.
Even along banks of the river, recreation activities are in a flood-weary limbo.
Four golf courses operated by GolfNorth — the City of Waterloo’s Grey Silo, Conestoga, Paris Grand and RiverEdge in Kitchener — had many sand traps and cart paths washed out.
RiverEdge was hoping to open six of nine holes on Tuesday.
“Walking RiverEdge, there’s a trailer park right there along the water there,” said Mike Turner, a GolfNorth vice-president. “There was tons of personal debris, clothing and some recycling bins — and lots of fish. Tons of carp always wash up in these scenarios.”
Gord and Gloria Houle have spent 11 summers at the nearby Pioneer Sportsmen Club trailer park. They were awoken in the middle of the night by firefighters in boats as the waters approached their front doors.
“When I saw the water outside the door, I thought I was going to die,” Gloria Houle said on Monday. “I was scared. Really scared.”
The Houle trailer was badly damaged. Their future there is murky.
“It’s a great place. It’s just a place you can go and lay back and you don’t have to worry about what going on anywhere else,” Gloria said. “Heaven only knows what’s going to happen now.”
And heaven only knows when the Deer Ridge Golf Club will open again for its members. The golf course is shut down for at least the next few days, according to head pro Rich Morel. A realistic time line for reopening is being worked on. But the task will be daunting. Only three of 18 holes weren’t submerged at the height of the flooding. On two holes, the water reached the top of the pin.
“Just the sheer force of the water going through,” Morel recalled of the Friday-Saturday wave that engulfed the Deer Ridge fairways.
“It was almost like rapids in front of No. 3 green and coming across No. 6.”
And there was a dock that ended up in the middle of one fairway.
“Where that came from, couldn’t tell you,” Morel said. “I don’t know who would have a dock anywhere close to here.”
The Deer Ridge club house, on higher ground, escaped damage. And eventually golf will resume at the private club.
“In the grand scheme of things, these are very much First World problems,” Morel said.
Houghton agrees he and his wife are very fortunate. He doesn’t believe his brand new trailer will have to be replaced. But he is facing perhaps thousands of dollars in repairs to carpet and cupboards and flooring. And others at his West Montrose 200-lot trailer park may not be as lucky.
“It’s not just us,” he said. “It’s everybody around.”