Pierrefonds residents brace for possible flooding with lessons from 2017 in tow

Flood preparation is underway in Montreal’s Pierrefonds on the West Island.

Water levels have risen from the snowmelt and the area by the wetlands, which was hit hard in 2017 and 2019, is on high alert.

On Wednesday water could already be seen creeping up onto properties. Residents say they’re taking precautions.

“The prep work is in the garage. You got anything that’s on the floor has to be raised up higher,” said Pierrefonds-Roxboro resident Jean Bourdon.

“There’s a lot of work to do to prepare. You don’t want to lose your stuff in the basement.”

In the 2017 flood, Bourdon’s shed was flooded and he lost his snowblower. Since then, he has been preparing every spring.

“2017, 2019 experience, you learn,” he said.

Bourdon relies on electricity to keep his home untouched by water.

“That sump pump needs to work because if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t take long that the basement floods,” he said.

‘It’s nerve racking’

Nearby at Gianna Valentino’s house in Pierrefonds on the waterfront, a temporary dike was installed by the borough.

“If they don’t stop here, it’s going to go all on the street,” she said. “Like last time in 2017, it went all the way to Gouin.”

In 2017, the crawl space of Valentino’s home was flooded. Two years later it was spared because of reinforcements. She’s hoping to keep the water at bay once again.

“In the back, too, it’s starting to come into the land and in on the other side too,” she said. “We have these near the garage because there’s a ramp there. So the water comes up and it’s nerve racking.”

The impact of spring flooding could already be felt in park l’Anse-à-l’Orme Wednesday, where a walking path normally used to access the area was under water – because the level of the Lake of Two Mountains was so high.

“It still has a way to go before it reaches the homes, for sure,” Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis told CityNews. “But all of that can change at a moment’s notice. So we’re keeping our fingers crossed up until the end of the week. We’ll re-evaluate, of course, with civil security and all the folks that manage the waterway system upriver to find out if there is an issue that we need to consider come the weekend.

“But we’re on top of things. We’re there around the clock, and our employees are there to provide the support that we need.”

Volunteers help with sandbagging

It was all hands on deck on Pierrefonds-Roxboro’s Lauzon street.

Volunteers helped out by bringing sandbags to residents’ properties in hopes of keeping any potential rising water out of their homes.

Around 100 homes are vulnerable in the borough. If the area does see flooding, it wouldn’t be because of the nearby river spilling over, it would be because of the wetlands they’re up against.

The city says one pallet – or about 60 sandbags – has been allocated to the vulnerable homes. The goal is to block ground entrances and windows.

Flood risk diminishing

Recent favourable weather in southwestern Quebec has lowered the risk of flooding in some areas.

Precipitation has been lower than initially expected at the start of the week, and cooler temperatures are slowing the snowmelt.

Only five areas in Quebec had average flooding as of Wednesday afternoon: Saint-Gabriel-de-Brandon’ the Ouareau River in Rawdon; the L’Assomption River in Joliette; the Rivière du Nord in Saint-Jérôme; and the Rivière Saint-Charles in Quebec City.

There were also reports of 18 minor floods, mainly in the Outaouais, Montreal, Laurentides and Lanaudière regions.

Twenty-two other rivers across the province are under surveillance.

—With files from La Presse Canadienne