JOHN JANTAK
The 1019 Report

Property damage in Vaudreuil-Dorion caused by the torrential rains that swept through southern Quebec on Aug. 9 was far more extensive than first thought.

With damage reports now completed, the city claims 1,400 residences were flooded.

Two municipal buildings also suffered flooding damage, including the historic house at the Parc Maison Valois. Built in 1796, the building on the edge of Vaudreuil Bay, needed to be drained of flood waters that accumulated during the heavy rains.

A municipal building on St. Charles Ave. that houses the city’s human resources department also saw water damage.

“The first floor is OK,” Vaudreuil-Dorion director-general Olivier Van Neste said, “but we had to strip the entire basement and redo it.”

During the past three weeks, the city directed its municipal employees and hired contractors to clear up the debris homeowners piled alongside curbs outside flooded residences.

As of Aug. 29, a total of 662 truckloads of debris – about 2,500 metric tonnes – had been collected.

“We had from five to eight teams working every day,” Van Neste said.

The city is waiving its regular fees for renovation permits and is issuing them as quickly as possible to help affected homeowners, Van Neste added. But the city is not able to provide any additional financial help.

“There’s a lot of talk from the province that they could increase their current program, which is reserved exclusively for residents affected by flooding from a river or lake,” Van Neste said.

“It’s a really small proportion of the population that would be able to take advantage of a grant from the provincial government,” he added. “They are being told to go to their insurers first.”

With the large number of properties that have been affected by the floods, many homeowners will have to wait until 2025 before they’re able to hire a contractor to repair the damage, Van Neste estimated.

“There are a fixed amount of contractors on the market, and this means that reconstruction will take a while,” he said.

According to city officials, 219 millimetres of rain drenched the area in a 24-hour period Aug. 9 as the remnants of Hurricane Debby tore through the region, far more than the 176 mms of precipitation recorded in Montreal that day.

“There is no sewer network in North America that can handle that much water,” Van Neste said.