Risk of rain adds to worries in hard-hit Dunrobin
Officials expect that more than half of 53 damaged homes will need to be rebuilt
As city and hydro crews worked Monday to get Dunrobin back on the grid, the threat of rain in the coming days loomed.
It remains, for the most part, a recovery effort in the hamlet between the Ottawa River and the Carp escarpment, with officials expecting that more than half of 53 damaged homes will need to be rebuilt.
Those that can be salvaged need to be protected from rain forecast to begin Tuesday.
About 200 skilled workers are assisting efforts to tarp roofs and secure windows and doors on salvageable homes. Any home that could have power restored must be inspected before the city is satisfied that residents will be safe when they do return.
The city has divided the area into three zones and labelled each home: A red sheet means the home should be torn down, a yellow sheet means precautions are required to maintain what’s left and a green sheet means a home is livable.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, but we are concerned,” area Coun. Eli El-Chantiry said Monday at the intersection of Dunrobin Road and Thomas A. Dolan Parkway, surrounded by heavy machinery and police officers directing traffic. “They ’re calling for a heavy rain.” City staff were working to clear debris from ditches, culverts and catch basins so they can absorb that water.
Police continue to secure the affected areas. Firefighters and police officers are assisting families as they visit homes to retrieve personal belongings — in one case, a cat from basement rubble — while victim crisis workers also provide support.
“This is a tragic event, and anything that we can do to help them get through this, we’re there to do,” police Chief Charles Bordeleau said.
The City of Ottawa’s general manager of emergency and protective services, Anthony Di Monte, said Dunrobin was the hardest-hit area.
“You can see, the city we’re in different modes,” Di Monte said. “We’re still in recovery mode (in Dunrobin), and in some other areas we’re in cleanup mode, bringing in bins, and the province today actually offered to help us get more bins.”
Logistics include picking up garbage, making sure recovered items are displayed at the reception centre so people can find their things, getting running water for nearly 400 volunteers and making sure people who have offered their help continue to register at West Carleton Secondary School so organizers can deploy them where they are needed.
Students will return to classes at the high school Tuesday, but plans include continuing to dedicate part of the building to storm efforts. If necessary, operations will move to the city’s client service centre in Kinburn.
As of Monday afternoon, there was still no power in the area, so reopening Dunrobin Road wasn’t expected until Tuesday at the earliest.
“They need to keep it (closed) for emergency and hydro workers to do their jobs,” El-Chantiry said.
Heart and Soul Café, which for many is the heart and soul of the community, was offering free coffee, tea and egg muffins to emergency staff. A sign posted on a light pole on pink poster board signalled the way for those who were hungry or in need.
Jim Bowen owns both the café and the Heart of the Valley Gift Shop, which was destroyed by the tornado. The café had power again Saturday morning.
“You’ve got to look around this place. It’s a war zone. There are thousands of volunteers, hundreds of first responders and emergency workers, and they all need a place to pee, pardon my language, and they need coffee and they need bites to eat and that’s what we do,” Bowen said.
“We’ve got a huge amount of cleanup, but I can fire up coffee, we can cook soup, we can just do those sort of things.”
Fundraising efforts are underway online and a collection was taken up at the Carp Fair over the weekend.
“Oh, we will rebuild, there’s no question about it,” added Bowen, who saw the gift shop destroyed by fire in 2008 and rebuilt a year later. “We’re just too stupid to quit. We’re too stubborn.”
Meanwhile, Nicole Lowden, a paramedic married to a volunteer firefighter, was thanking the firstresponder community after literally being given a new home.
Lowden, her husband Brian and their three children had survived the Constance Bay floods in 2017. After they subsequently sold that home, their daughter, now 22, was diagnosed with Stage 2 lymphoma.
They were renting a house on Thomas A. Dolan Parkway while awaiting construction of a new Constance Bay home when Friday’s tornado ripped through the rental.
After word of their situation spread, Ottawa fire Chief Kim Ayotte, who owns a Dunrobin house listed for sale, offered it to the Lowdens.
“After what we’ve been through, I’m not going to have us all living in different spots,” Lowden said Monday. “It’s unbelievable. Last night was the first night we actually all slept because we knew that we had a place to go to, a permanent place.”
With just an eight-month lease on their rental home, the Lowdens had chosen not to obtain renters’ or contents insurance. They put some belongings in storage and insured those items.
“You think, ‘Well, the chances of your storage container being vandalized or water damaged are far higher than, you know, a tornado hitting your house,’” Lowden said. “It’s the most ridiculous thing.”
Dunrobin has no city-run water, so, as power comes back on, officials will be monitoring its quality. Residents are urged to flush septic and well systems before drinking water.