BRENDA O’FARRELL
The 1510 West
The complete count of how many homes in the West Island were affected by flooding last weekend may not yet be known by municipal officials, but the overall consensus is that the sudden storm Sunday afternoon was not as bad as the water damage experienced in August of 2024.
“It’s bad, but not as bad as last year,” said Pointe Claire Mayor Tim Thomas on Monday.
Thomas spent much of Sunday afternoon surveying the water levels that had accumulated in a variety of areas in the city, including what looked like a lake in front of Pointe Claire’s public works building.
Pointe Claire city hall on St. Jean Blvd., the Olive Urquhart sports centre on Brunswick Blvd., and the city’s nautical centre on Lakeshore Road all experienced some flooding, Thomas said.
The intensity of the rainfall saw rivers of runoff flowing down a number of streets across the West Island, as the intense rain sent water spewing from manhole covers. The result was a number of homes across the region — including in Pointe Claire, Dorval, Beaconsfield and Dollard des Ormeaux — seeing flood waters infiltrate basements and garages.
And for many, the damage comes after completing repairs following a record-setting rainstorm on Aug. 9, 2024, left feet of water in thousands of basements across the Montreal area.
“To be flooded again is so disheartening … truly … just barely got everything back in order in my basement to now start again,” said Pointe Claire resident Debbie Doyle in a comment posted online.
According to Environment Canada, the Greater Montreal area received 70 to 80 millimetres of rains within a three-hour span last Sunday afternoon. In Pointe Claire, the recorded rainfall hit 81 millimetres, according to the city, while in Dorval, the amount of precipitation was measured at 70 millimetres, according to Dorval Mayor Marc Doret.
About 20 to 40 houses in Dorval were flooded, Doret estimated.
On Monday, Dorval council announced it will invest up to $3.5 million to double the capacity of water maintenance infrastructure in an area of the city that was the hardest hit by rainstorm flooding last August and again on the weekend.
“It’s very preliminary,” Doret said. “Normally we wait until we have signed deals, but we felt it was important to let the community know that we are taking steps. It’s maybe not as fast as they would wish, but these are major engineering projects and you’ve got to make sure that they’re done right.”
In Kirkland, only two to five homes were flooding, said Mayor Michel Gibson yesterday, while in Ste. Anne de Bellevue no reports of damage had been recorded at town hall on Monday.
The situation is far from the disastrous situation last Aug. 9, when 173 millimetres of rain was recorded in Ste. Anne, which not only set a record, but ranked as the second-highest deluge recorded in the province that day and left homeowners across the Montreal region with feet of water in their basements.