Quebec, Ottawa flooding woes continue
• Jean-Maurice Vandergoten, 52, needed the army’s help to escape with his two dogs after water suddenly rose to chest height outside the home where he has lived for 23 years. He made it to an amphibious vehicle carrying his large dog above his head, he said. On Monday, he was back on his street, hoping to rescue the three cats that he left behind. “It’s a real miracle when you think about it,” he said. “In about half an hour, the whole area was underwater, and there’s no people dead, no injured and everyone is OK. It was a really good job by the authorities.” Vandergoten is one of 6,500 residents of this suburb west of Montreal who were forced to flee from their homes on the weekend as floodwaters broke through a natural dike that has held back the Lac des Deux Montagnes for 43 years. Residents left behind medication, wallets and pets as the lake breached the dike at about 7 p.m. Saturday. Soldiers, firefighters and police, sirens blaring, patrolled the streets and pounded on doors to get homeowners to leave. The next day 1,500 more residents were advised to go. Mayor Sonia Paulus said authorities reported a drop in water levels overnight Sunday and Quebec Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault said she believes the “most critical” phase of the spring floods has passed, but warned the road to recovery will be long and challenging.
“I want to prepare people to arm themselves with patience,” Guilbault told a news conference Monday. “The lowering of water levels will be slow and take time. We need to be aware of that and prepare for it.” Across Quebec, 9,500 people have been forced from their homes, more than double the number who were evacuated during the devastating floods two years ago. More than 6,400 homes have been flooded and another 3,488 have been cut off from their communities by floodwaters. Flooding has closed several streets and highways in the Montreal area, where 94 homes have taken on water. The military has helped build one new dike in SteMarthe-sur-le-Lac and is almost finished a second, said Guilbault.
In Ottawa, which has been under a state of emergency since last Thursday, emergency workers are bracing for more rain.
“The weather forecast is not good at this point,” Pierre Poirier, the city’s head of emergency management, said during a daily press briefing at city hall. “Earlier this week the forecast was 10-20 millimetres of rain, that’s upgraded to up to 40 millimetres of rain.” An estimated million sandbags are standing between the bloated Ottawa River and residences and businesses in the capital. More are in place in Gatineau, Que., on the river’s opposite bank. Even so, whole riverfront neighbourhoods are flooded.