Montreal flood watch: City builds 1.5-km temporary wall to protect Pierrefonds homes

A 1.5-kilometre-long temporary dike system – a protective wall separating homes from the Rivière des Prairies – has gone up in Pierrefonds-Roxboro.

The City of Montreal says the $1.5 million wall runs through people’s properties and across their fence lines.

The measure is temporary, explained Montreal’s mayor, because “we couldn’t build a wall in the river or directly in the water. It’s not feasible.”

But Soraya Martinez Ferrada says the temporary system could serve in the future.

“This is equipment that, once purchased, can be reused. But still, it takes time and effort,” Martinez Ferrada told a press conference Wednesday along the river bank.

“What was done and the lessons learned by the team here are quite remarkable. And now, we’ll be able to share this learning with others, with our colleagues, partners, and mayors of other municipalities.”

“If these installations were not in place like you see today, on Saturday, we would have been severely flooded,” said Pierrefonds Mayor Jim Beis.

Martinez Ferrada says more permanent measures will be needed to prevent flooding altogether in the future. She’s meeting new Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette later Wednesday to discuss the current flooding situation, among other topics.

“She herself is aware of the situation; she went out into the field a few days ago to see firsthand what’s happening with the floods,” the Montreal mayor said of Fréchette. “The conversation now needs to focus, once we have the mapping done, on how the Quebec government will partner with municipalities to implement preventative measures that require funding.

“And this investment work cannot be undertaken solely by the municipalities; they will need support from Quebec.”

The mayor says the system for preventing floods before it’s too late was born out of lessons from the 2017 flood in Montreal’s West Island. That year, some 800 homes were flooded in Pierrefonds-Roxboro alone.

“The lessons learned from the 2017 flood led to many new methods for preventing floods and identifying high-risk areas,” Martinez Ferrada said.

“I can only imagine what it’s like to live in a house where every year in the month of April you have to stay home because you don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Martinez Ferrada.

Pierrefonds resident Denis Gingras, who owns a house right on the water, remembers all too well that spring nearly a decade ago.

He has vivid memories of the army helping pump out water; residents having to take canoes to get to dry land; and being kept up all night with worry about what would happen to his home.

“The dam just collapsed and the whole neighborhood was flooded and we lost homes and it took the army to remove everything,” said Gingras.

“In 2017 there was a canoe on the corner of of the road here,” added another resident Neil Koury.

This year, in stark contrast, Gingras says he’s extremely confident in the city’s ability to protect residents. He says Pierrefonds Mayor Jim Beis, who stood beside Martinez Ferrada at the press conference, goes to check on the water level and situation there every day.

“There’s a continuous follow up every hour, if not more than that. Our teams are driving through the area, making sure the pumps have enough gas, when to start them, when not, when do we need to reinforce,” said Beis.

But despite the city’s reassurance to support residents, many still fear what’s to come as the second flood period looms. “A lot of these residents are worried about what’s going to happen. A lot of their homes have become uninsurable,” said Koury.

The situation was more concerning in Terrasse-Vaudreuil, on Île Perrot, where several homes were flooded — with water rising.

Tom McFarlane, the owner of a property there, told CityNews his tenant’s garage was flooded and had been working since Wednesday morning to bring things to higher ground.

“If it gets high enough where it breaches the first floor, then I’m in trouble and then you can’t do anything,” said McFarlane.

He said he expects the crawl space to be next, with neighboring properties also at risk.

“I mean, the people who have lived through the flood before are more prepared now than they were before. But who knows what’s coming, right?” he said, adding that this flood gives him a sense of déjà vu and that he finds himself to be ‘accustomed’ to it but not ‘comfortable’ with it.

He says this is the fourth flood he’s experienced in nine years.

McFarlane says the city hasn’t done much for residents of Île Perrot, pointing to a gap in communication and information which he feels often doesn’t reflect the situation on the ground. He also certain laws are archaic, such as the inability to build on stilts.

“They’re present, but if you need sandbags now you have to go to Town Hall and fill them yourself,” said McFarlane.