Scrambling for help as the rivers rise
SANDBAGS, EVACUATIONS IN FLOOD ZONE
Quebec provincial police were patrolling an area of homes and cottages along the Rouge River, about 140 km west of Montreal, on Friday where 75 people were forced out when a hydro dam was declared to be at risk of failing. In Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, the site of the Chute Bell dam, Sgt. Marc Tessier said evacuees left voluntarily, though some in more remote areas had to be airlifted out. The evacuated area stretches about 18 kilometres south to the Ottawa River in Quebec’s Lower Laurentians region. Police planned to remain in the area to ensure no one returned. “Our message is, if you’re in the zone, we’re going to ask you to leave,” Tessier said. “We don’t have a time frame for when they’ll (be able to) go back.”
CHUTE BELL DAM
The Chute Bell dam is a century old and was built to withstand what officials are calling a millennial flood — an event expected once in a thousand years. Those levels have been reached, said Francis Labbe, a Hydro-Quebec spokesman, and the forecast suggests things will get much worse. “The problem is the rain that we are expecting in the next 24 hours or so, and we know this rain will make the flow of the river rise 30 per cent more than what it is right now.” Eric Moisan, another utility spokesman, acknowledged that once the river flow surpasses the current 980 cubic metres per second, “we don’t know how the power station will perform.” He noted that a dam does not necessarily give way when the flow is excessive. “It’s concrete. It’s very solid.”
WEST QUEBEC
Canadian Forces soldiers Friday were sent to Pointe-Calumet, a town just west of Montreal that lies on the Lake of Two Mountains. They were working to reinforce a dike which, if it gives way, could force 1,000 people from their homes. As of 1 p.m. Friday, Quebec’s Public Security Department said 3,148 residences had been flooded in the province, 2,362 residences had been cut off due to rising waters and 1,110 people had been forced from their homes.
In Gatineau, Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin warned residents to prepare for the worst.
“By Monday or Tuesday, we should exceed the highest levels of 2017,” he said, adding it could stay that way for up to two weeks. “What we will live through in the coming weeks, we’ve never experienced.”
MONTREAL
Under steady rain Friday, Montreal declared a state of emergency. Mayor Valerie Plante said the city had felt it had matters under control — until a rainstorm dumped as much as 60 mm of rain on already flooded regions. Raising the alert level means that Montreal’s fire chief can force evacuations if necessary and make decisions on expenses without requiring the city council approval.
EASTERN ONTARIO
Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency on Thursday, prompting the federal government to send 400 soldiers to help sandbag and aid in relief efforts to small rural communities on the western edge of Ottawa.
The Ottawa River’s level is expected to rise nearly a metre within the next few days, well above its peak in a 2017 flood that was thought to have been a once-in-a-century event.
The most serious flooding so far is in villages along the Ottawa River outside the downtown core, but a riverbank path behind Parliament is already underwater. Ontario Premier Doug Ford was on the scene Friday and said the devastation “just rips your heart out.” The municipality of Clarence-Rockland just east of Ottawa, as well as the towns of Bracebridge and Huntsville in the Muskoka region north of Toronto, have also declared states of emergency.
NEW BRUNSWICK
Flooding along the Saint John River was receding in Fredericton, where parts of the downtown core were under water this week, but the weekend rainfall is going to reverse that. Federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said 140 roads have been closed due to flooding including the Trans-Canada Highway between Oromocto and River Glade.
The Red Cross had registered 940 evacuees from 330 households in New Brunswick by Friday afternoon.
MANITOBA
The rising Red River in southern Manitoba has forced some road closures and a small number of evacuations near the community of St. Jean Baptiste. Earlier predictions for major flooding between the U.S. border and Winnipeg haven’t come to pass because of less snowfall than expected in April and a slower than expected spring melt.