Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
Scott Boyd walks barefoot across a section of Second Line Road, north of March Road, while out for a run that was closed due to flooding in Ottawa, Ont., Jul. 25, 2009.
Photograph by: Christopher Pike, The Ottawa Citizen
Hundreds of angry homeowners in Kanata and Stittsville had flooded basements, roads were closed throughout the region, and the Ottawa River received enough wastewater to fill 70 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
The worst part? More rain could be on the way.
Rain was expected overnight Saturday, there was a 60-per-cent chance of showers today and Monday had a 40-per-cent chance of showers.
That’s not the best news for residents in western sections of the city.
On Saturday, disaster recovery companies fanned out across Kanata and Stittsville while homeowners dumped thousands of dollars of destroyed furniture, electronics, rugs, walls, heirlooms and other cherished items into garages and driveways.
One West Ridge Drive homeowner in Stittsville lost almost $20,000 worth of belongings and many homeowners have already been told their insurance companies won’t cover their losses. Some insurance companies made immediate arrangements for flood recovery teams to help their clients while other flood victims were offered voicemail by their insurance companies.
Michel Chevalier, manager of wastewater and drainage operations for the City of Ottawa, said the city received 260 calls from flooded residents by 4:15 p.m. Saturday, but he expects that number to increase significantly in the coming days after people finish cleaning up their basements.
Residents in the long-suffering Glen Cairn neighbourhood were dealing with anywhere from 10 to 30 centimetres of water in their basements. Clusters of hard-hit homes could be found on Sheldrake and Kincardine drives while many residents near Black Bear Drive were flooded in Stittsville. A man working with Belfor Restoration Services, one of at least a dozen such companies in the Ottawa area, said his company alone had received 90 calls for help this weekend.
Many people, like Michel Lacasse of Sheldrake Drive, were left to clean up on their own.
“Now I’m in the club, a waterfront property,” said Lacasse.
“Last time this happened (in 2004) I was lucky enough, There was no water in my basement and the city was supposed to have fixed it so I’m thinking I’m better off than I was, but I guess the city fixed it so everybody could share in the problems instead of fixing it so nobody would,” he said.
Glen Cairn area residents have suffered through several floods events in the past 10 years. Some drainage work was carried out in the area two years ago, but Chevalier said it was not intended to cope with the enormous rainfall that hit the area on Friday.
“I’m not entirely sure now that what we’ve done was aimed at correcting what happened (Friday).
We will look into that. It’s a little premature to draw conclusions at this point. We are still dealing with repercussions of the event,” said Chevalier.
He said localized rainfall records are not available for the west end of Ottawa yet, but he said some “pockets” in downtown Ottawa received up to 105 mm of rain on Friday. According to Environment Canada measurements at the Ottawa airport, 40.66 millimetres fell on Friday and 11.4 millimetres fell Thursday.
As a result, the Ottawa River received 175,000 cubic metres of rainwater mixed with sewage over those two days.
“That’s a lot,” Chevalier said.
More specifically, it’s enough to fill 70 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Chevalier said in a typical summer, 455,000 cubic metres of runoff will flow into the Ottawa River. So in two days, almost 40 per cent of that total was reached.
The city has one main pipe that goes to its wastewater treatment plant, and when the pipe has too much to carry, it flows into the Ottawa River, instead of people’s basements, he said.
No swim advisories were posted at all area beaches Saturday — with Petrie Island and Westboro Beaches closed because of increased bacteria due to rainfall.
Chevalier said the E.coli levels would be fairly high throughout the river, and it would be prudent to avoid any contact with the water — whether swimming, waterskiing or wakeboarding. Flooded city sports parks also remain closed.
Chevalier said the run-off will flow eastward, and within a day, it will be carried past Petrie Island.
Chevalier said drainage systems in the stricken areas had “almost” recovered from the deluge and were working properly, but another torrential rainfall in coming days could cause problems.
In Dunrobin, several water-covered roads were closed, their shoulders washed away, and no immediate word on when they would reopen. A section of Highway 303
between Portage du Fort and Shawville, Que., was also closed Saturday, with no indication of when it would be opened. A state of emergency was declared in sections of McNab Braeside Township, and several homes along the Ottawa River were reported to have been evacuated due to erosion.
In Ottawa, Stittsville-Kanata West Ward Councillor Shad Qadri was touring neighbourhoods Friday and Saturday and estimates between 200 and 400 homes were flooded in his ward alone. Matthew Watts, who had 25 centimetres inches of water and $20,000 of damage was visited by Qadri and a city of Ottawa official who inspected the drain in his basement to look at a device called a back-flow valve, designed to stop sewer water from backing up into his home.
“He looked down and said ‘I don’t know what the guy did when he installed this.’ Ours was obviously not installed correctly,” said Watts. He said the official commented to him that faulty or non-existent back-flow valves appeared to be the cause behind the flooding in many homes he visited, but Qadri and Chevalier said a full investigation in the coming days was required to discover the cause.
Chevalier said it’s not the city’s responsibility to install back-flow valves and many developers do not install the devices.
Watts’ wife Lee said she was very impressed with Qadri for visiting their home on Saturday, but had a blunt message for the politician.
“I told him that I understand why you are here but just make sure this isn’t going to happen again,” said
Pete Kelly, of Sheldrake Drive, said he has survived four such floods and says residents were given assurances by the City of Ottawa after the last flood in 2004 that it would not happen again.
“They told us this would not happen. So we went and put our basements back together. We put the carpet back in. You know what I mean?” he said. Kelly sports a large chest scar from recent open heart surgery and spent Saturday hauling destroyed belongings out of his basement onto the driveway.
Thousands of dollars of his wife’s quilting equipment was destroyed. He said when he arrived home Friday night he found knee-deep water that he moved towards a drain with a snow shovel. Two out of the last three floods his insurance company refused to cover his losses but he said he will fight for at least $10,000 compensation this time. He also expects fights with the City of Ottawa.
“The last time this happened we had to nag the city to come and pick up the mess, which they finally agreed to,” said Kelly.
Andrew McNeill, a spokesman for Kanata South Councillor Peggy Feltmate, said her office has already asked city officials to ensure that arrangements are made to collect the damaged goods put out by flooded residents.
Kelly’s neighbour, Monique Forsythe, said her son inspected her basement at 4:45 p.m. Friday and found no flooding, but by 5:30 there was 13 centimetres of water and items floating around her basement.
“It happened really fast. It kept filling up and filling up,” said Forsythe.
Her husband Larry snatched about 10 photo albums that were in water. They took the albums to her daughter’s home and spread hundreds of photos throughout the house to dry them on Friday night. The couple’s son Eric was outraged that this keeps happening to residents in the Glen Cairn area.
“Water was actually pushing the foundation from underneath the house and coming out through the floor. There was actually a fountain of water coming out,” he said.
Corey Irwin lives across the street from the Forsythe family and was supposed to leave on vacation Friday, Instead, she has spent the past two days cleaning up her basement. She said the water that entered her basement was dirty, foul-smelling and full of dead insects. She said
she called her insurance company to see about having the damaged items replaced and she said she was asked if she could simply clean them up.
Down the street, Shaun Bisson said he spent hours Saturday morning removing laminated flooring, baseboards, and drywall in the basement of his home, which also serves as the sleeping quarters for his family.
He said he woke up Saturday morning, swung his feet out of bed to stand up and landed in several centimetres of water. He said his insurance company will not cover any flood damage if the water comes from outside the house. A flood from a broken water heater would be covered.
© Copyright© The Ottawa Citizen