FLOODED AND FORGOTTEN
Weeks after the waters ravaged neighbourhoods in and around the island of Montreal, residents whose lives are still upended despair that they have been left to their own devices.
First came the flash flooding of her entire street in Roxboro, then the marathon demolition and cleanup as everyone, from the local priest in his Sunday garb to the high school hockey team, came out to salvage what could be salvaged and toss the rest.
But as she enters her eighth week of living in a hotel with her husband and four sons, with no idea of when she can go home, Frances Maxant is preparing for a fresh hell.
What to do with the boys, confined to two rooms at the Holiday Inn, now that school is out?
“A new nightmare is about to begin,” she sighed.
“Everything’s a mess. The way everything is being handled now is a disaster. So far we haven’t received any money from the public safety ministry or insurance . ... Everything is so slow. Everything seems to be at a standstill.”
It’s a common lament heard throughout affected areas along the Rivière des Prairies, from 5th Ave. N. in Roxboro, where Maxant used to live, to des Maçons St. in Pierrefonds and on to Île Mercier.
More than six weeks after “Niagara Falls” ran into his basement, Pierrefonds resident Tim Coochey says he and other flood victims have yet to see a red cent from the Quebec government.
“They’ve left us high and dry,” said Coochey, from his home on des Maçons St., where he and other residents are planning a protest next week. “You register with them and they say you’ll be paid in five to seven days. It’s been 30 days and nothing!”
Coochey was out of his home for two-and-a-half weeks during the worst of the flooding, which saw his pink sofa floating on five feet of water in his basement.
During that time, he said, the army was nowhere to be seen, and the city was only efficient when it came to picking up the 450 tons of waterlogged goods left over. A garbage truck passed by every 20 minutes, he said.
But Coochey reserves his most biting remarks for the Quebec government, which, despite assurances, he said has failed to visit even half of the devastated homes on his street.
“(Government-mandated) adjusters do two houses and then they’re gone for a week. I called to ask about my file and they told me the person handling it doesn’t work there anymore . ... At least half of the 24 houses on my street have not even been inspected yet. There’s no excuse for this. This is Canada — this shouldn’t be happening.”
The public safety ministry did hold information sessions in the area, Coochey said, but didn’t tell anyone about them. He said one of his neighbours called to complain about the slow pace of the operation and was told, “Gatineau was flooded, too. Wait your turn!”
At a news conference Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson for the public safety ministry said so far 3,000 homes have been visited, out of about 5,300 that were damaged across the province, in 278 municipalities. Some 4,000 people were forced to leave their homes.
But the areas flooded first, like Rigaud, take precedence, said Olivier Cantin.
Homeowners are entitled to up to $200,000 in compensation, plus $50,000 if they sell the land to rebuild in areas of lower risk. But only $20 million has been disbursed to flood victims, out of a total of $350 million the government estimates it will hand out as compensation.
“We’ve met people; the forms have been completed,” Cantin said. “It’s hard to say they don’t have any news. The minister is there to help and it’s going well. But we can’t just snap our fingers after we meet them and the work is done.”
Public Safety Minister Martin Coiteux presented the decision taken by the Quebec government’s council of ministers Wednesday to establish a “special intervention zone” for the next 18 months, where existing policies for flood plains in the province will finally be enforced.
That means any homes in high flood-risk zones that are considered a total loss — where the house is destroyed or dangerous or damage represents more than 50 per cent of the value of the property — cannot be rebuilt. (Homes in lower-risk zones — where flooding is likely to occur every 20 to 100 years — can be rebuilt.)
So far, some 500 to 800 residences in the province have been deemed total losses, mostly in the Gatineau area, but some in Île Bizard and Pierrefonds as well.
Homeowners in those areas who already have permits will be allowed to continue the work, Coiteux said. And exceptions can be made, upon analysis, to rebuild homes of special heritage or other value. Public consultations on the new decree will take place July 10.
But those who don’t already have permits to renovate or rebuild will have to have their homes evaluated by the public safety ministry or, if they are not eligible for compensation from the government, by a recognized insurance adjuster before they can get a municipal permit to rebuild, Coiteux said.
That could mean even longer delays for the dozens of families still in hotels or waiting on money from the government.
Coiteux said he understands their frustration.
“What they are going through is very difficult,” Coiteux said. “What we’ve been doing is accelerating the process for financial support. We’ve increased the financial support for affected residents and set up temporary offices to treat the requests as fast as possible. We’ve enlisted contractors in every region willing to do the work at reasonable cost. What we’re announcing today is a set of very clear rules so people can start doing the work very rapidly.”
Sonia Brown, on Île Mercier, said she’s had two evaluators come, but that doesn’t seem to have accelerated the process at all.
Her file was opened May 4, and an inspector came on behalf of the provincial government. But when she calls on a daily basis to find out about his report, she is told “it’s being analyzed.” Then Brown found out the analyst was fired.
“I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes. But it takes four to eight weeks to rebuild and you can’t lay a foundation in winter.”
The Quebec government said it would offer advances to flood victims, to pay for basic needs and cleanup. But none of the people the Montreal Gazette spoke to had received any advances.
Brown spent $11,000 on demolition, removing mould and cleaning to prevent mould.
“We’ve hired our own engineer to understand what the structural damage is,” Brown said. “We’re paying out of pocket because we don’t trust the government.”
Adding insult to injury, a second evaluator came to assess the property for the municipal evaluations. “From what I understand, it’s to lower the property value. They say it’s to get a tax break, but it also means I’ll be entitled to less compensation.”
The evaluator didn’t even ring the doorbell, she added, and just walked into her now open basement. “That’s trespassing!”
Perhaps the hardest hit have been those who are forced to live at the hotel indefinitely while they’re waiting. On des Maçons St., about half of the residents are at the Holiday Inn, because their homes are dangerous — like Coochey’s neighbour, whose wall is leaning “like the tower of Pisa.”
It’s the same situation on 5th Ave. N.
Maxant can’t go home because of the danger of toxic mould in her basement. She, too, has paid out of pocket for the cleanup, to empty the basement and attempt to dry out the contents after it had been soaked in eight feet of water. The only money she has received is from the Red Cross, which renews her stay at the hotel every nine days and offers her vouchers for groceries or hotel meals.
During the first month, she had to get her four children to four separate schools. Her stay at the hotel has included two birthdays and one graduation. Her own birthday was May 7 — the day her street went from being covered by two inches of water to six feet of water. She blames the city for refusing to build a three-foot dike, and arresting a resident for trying to build one himself.
At one point a city worker showed up with cement blocks and sandbags, with an army of residents standing by to help. Then he said “it won’t be enough anyway” and left, said Maxant.
It’s still not clear whether the flooding on her street was the city’s fault or the fault of the AMT (now called the Réseau de transport métropolitain), which may or may not have refused to allow the dike to be built on AMT property.
But Maxant has filed a complaint with the city, because when the streets were flooded, the city pumphouses, left in a state of disrepair, didn’t work for four days, she said. The water just stayed there, and flowed into people’s homes.
Some of her neighbours are considering filing a class-action suit, she said. In the meantime, she said, she is slowly unravelling.
“It’s harrowing. Now I know all the hotel staff by name. It’s surreal. I look at them as actors on a movie set — am I losing my mind? I don’t know.
“Everyone is left to their own devices,” she continued. “No one gives you any guidance . ... They make themselves look good and they sound good, but in the end very little is done . ... For someone in our situation, we’re already in over our head and we’ve had it.”
So far we haven’t received any money from the public safety ministry or insurance. ... Everything seems to be at a standstill.