Pierrefonds residents affected by flooding demand permanent solutions

Flood victims living on Aragon Street in Pierrefonds-Roxboro want the city to take more responsibility, with some saying they will join a class-action lawsuit that has been filed against the city and is awaiting authorization.

Victor Knowlton, who has lived there for almost half a century, had just finished renovating his basement from the 2024 floods when his home was hit again on June 20.

“It’s the second time in two years, we had just finished the basement a week before it flooded again,” he said. “It took us 22 months to finally get it all done the way we wanted it and then that was it.”

Knowlton, his family and neighbours worked through the night to keep pumping the water out of his basement. He estimates 1.5 million litres of water was pumped out of his basement during the torrential rainfall.

Not only was his newly renovated basement destroyed, but he says the city was concerned about a possible sink hole in his backyard after water kept gushing out of holes in the lawn.

“(City workers) saw the water and they were flabbergasted,” he said. “They called the lieutenant to come and then they called the company to come.

“According to the report, they called the City of Montreal public works to come and take a look at it. Nobody showed up. It took about three-and-a-half weeks before we got somebody to come, and that way I had to make a complaint at city hall, and then somebody showed up the next day.”

Knowlton says he’ll sign onto the class-action lawsuit that has recently been filed against the City of Montreal and the Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough.

Jeff Orenstein, the lawyer behind the lawsuit, says the city should have done a lot more after the flooding in August of 2024.

“That’s certainly what we allege in the proceeding, and in fact we call it gross negligence,” said Orenstein. “This is a common phenomenon that is not new to the city, they know about it.

“The only thing they really should be doing is going to our website at clg.org, putting their name in and telling us about their damages and putting their address.”

CityNews reached out to Pierrefonds-Roxboro borough for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Joseph Fung, who moved to the area just a year ago, says he got the “shock of his life” when he came home to three feet of water in his basement on June 20. His neighbour lent him a generator to power his pumps and it took 15 hours to empty his basement.

“It’s twice in three years so it’s not an act of God this time,” he said.

Fung wants change and says he plans to join the class-action lawsuit.

“I would like for the city to actually take responsibility and investigate and fix the issue because our whole street, if not more than our street, was affected.”