‘Catastrophe’: Montreal’s West Island residents continue cleanup after heavy flooding

Damaged furniture and personal items are strewn across the lawns of Pierrefonds, Que. after heavy floodings left many residents sorting out what can be kept and what has to be thrown in the trash.

The Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough in Montreal saw an estimated 150 to 170 mm of rain fall in about two hours on Saturday.

“The power went out, but the sump pump didn’t work, so there was no way to stop it,” said Stephen Lister, a resident who saw bags of books and other items destroyed.

Rainfall left streets flooded, cars underwater and hundreds of homes damaged in the West Island and South Shore.

Thousands of Hydro-Quebec customers were initially left without power. More than 500 still remain without electricity on Monday, a majority of which were in Pierrefonds.

It’s not the first time the community has seen such dramatic weather, with the sewers being overburdened for the second time in two years.

“It was a catastrophe,” said Jason Klien, another resident who saw his basement filled. “I saw the hail coming because I could hear it and two seconds later we had water coming in our basement, it filled up fast so it was this one was just won by Mother Nature.”

Environment Canada previously reported between 100 to 150 mm in some other parts of Montreal.

That amount of rain has Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada stressing the province and municipalities have to find preventative measures.

“The traditional infrastructure of a city will not respond. It cannot respond to what we saw — the rain that we got this weekend,” Martinez Ferrada said during a news conference Monday.

“(The) city and the municipalities, we have to work to be big sponges, making sure that all the rain that we get doesn’t give the pressure of our infrastructure that gets into people’s basements.”

The mayor said she plans to work with the Communaute metropolitaine de Montreal (CMM) and provincial government to get a mandate that allows the city to model rainfall and determine which areas are most at risk.

One such option Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough Mayor Jim Beis suggested is finding a way to “canal” the water in a way that avoids homes.

But he noted for some residents with downslope driveways or a foundation that could be damaged, the water could still “infiltrate.”

“The water has saturated everywhere. So what happens, the water table pushes up from the ground and any time you have a crack in your foundation, it’s going to infiltrate,” Beis said. “So water has already seeped in, but you don’t see it.”

Quebec has invested in helping communities adapt to climate change, Premier Christine Frechette said during an unrelated news conference Monday, including offering financial help to people who are not insured. This includes provincial compensation of up to $385,000 for individual homeowners and $485,000 for businesses.

“I’m thinking about all these families and persons who have been affected this weekend, it is a very dramatic situation for many of them,” she said.

For residents in the affected communities, some feel they’re getting little help.

Daniel Khoury, also of Pierrefonds, saw the home he was set to move into get about six feet of water. He said while the city is trying to respond, he needs more action from the provincial government.

“I know what it is to be flooded; I know the pain and suffering that people go through,” he said, referencing the 2019 flooding he experienced.

“I think it’s time the government of Quebec sees this as a priority and makes changes, gives funding, so that the city (of Montreal) can act … They can’t if there’s no funding.”

As communities wait for action, residents like Stephen Lister are trying to cope with the loss of memories.

“I don’t know, what are you going to do? Thirty-five years of stuff, gone,” Lister said.

—with files from Global News’ Brayden Jagger Haynes