Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shovels sand to fill sandbags in the Ottawa community of Constance Bay.
Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
It’s another anxious weekend for flood-weary communities in Eastern Canada, with rain in the forecast for an area stretching from cottage country north of Toronto all the way to the Acadian Peninsula.
Montreal, Ottawa and many smaller communities across the expansive flood zone have declared states of emergency, prompting the federal government to deploy hundreds of soldiers to help with sandbagging and other relief operations.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau picked up a shovel Saturday to lend a hand with sandbagging efforts, as he and his two sons visited a west-end Ottawa community hit hard by rising floodwaters.
Trudeau was briefed by officials in charge of the fight against the flood at a community centre before filling sandbags and thanking those who came to the aid of local residents.
“Thank you for doing what you are doing,” Trudeau said as he and sons Xavier and Hadrien spoke with volunteers working around a large sandpile.
Not everyone appreciated Trudeau’s efforts to encourage others to help out flood-stricken families.
As he was shaking hands with military personnel and volunteers in Constance Bay, the riverfront village west of downtown Ottawa that has seen the worst flooding so far, a local resident confronted the prime minister to complain that his visit had slowed down sandbagging operations.
“You and your security are blocking the roads,” said the unidentified man.
“What you’re doing is insincere.”
The Prime Minister’s Office later said it had confirmed with the RCMP that traffic around the Constance and Buckham’s Bay Community Centre was not blocked for Trudeau’s visit.
Despite a night that gave Ottawa and Gatineau, Que., a break from rain, water levels around the capital region are expected to rise half a metre higher than they did during a 2017 flood that was thought to have been a once-in-a-century event.
Julie-Anne Miron checks a pump next to the Riviere-des-Prairies at her home surrounded by floodwaters in the Montreal borough of Sainte-Genevieve, Saturday, April 27, 2019.
Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
A morning report from the board that monitors levels in the Ottawa River says near Constance Bay, water levels are just shy of their 2017 levels and are forecast to rise another 47 centimetres. At a measuring spot near Parliament Hill, where paths and parking lots along the river are already underwater, the board forecasts a rise of another 75 centimetres before water levels peak on May 1.
Rising river levels forced the closure Saturday morning of a heavily travelled bridge onto the Island of Montreal. Quebec’s Transport Department announced it was closing the Galipeault Bridge, a western access point to Montreal along Highway 20.
The department said in a statement that the closure is for an indefinite period. Traffic is being diverted to another bridge farther north, but the department asked motorists to avoid the area.
A close eye is also being kept on a hydroelectric dam, on a tributary of the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Montreal, that’s at risk of failing. Water at the Chute-Bell dam has reached levels expected to occur every 1,000 years, but Hydro-Quebec says it’s confident the structure is solid.
Area residents are ferried to their homes in Darlings Island, N.B. The area is cut off when the Kennebecasis River, a tributary of the Saint John River, rises above the road leading to the community.
Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Meantime, a bit of relief is in sight for flood-weary residents of southern New Brunswick, with the latest forecast calling for waters to slowly recede in most areas over the next five days.
However, Greg MacCallum, director of New Brunswick EMO, said it’s too soon for any significant relief.
“That simply means that we’re going to get back to flood stage in some cases, and it will be a number of days before we’re below flood stage,” he said.
MacCallum warned that strong winds are posing problems, especially for crews using boats to survey damage and check on stranded homeowners.
“One of the potential implications to winds is that it may affect movement of ice, which may in fact run up on shore and cause infrastructure damage or additional problems with roads,” he said.
MacCallum said he’s keeping a particularly close eye on ice in Grand Lake, east of Fredericton.
Downey said while officials need to be on the water, members of the general public should not head out onto the rivers and streams just yet.
“The river remains a dangerous place and people should not be out doing any recreational activities on it,” he said.
In Fredericton, city crews have been hauling away truckloads of driftwood and other debris left behind by the flooding.
Wayne Tallon, a spokesman for the city, said the amount of debris seems to be even greater than it was last year.
Water levels have fallen significantly in Fredericton in recent days, and many of the affected roads have been reopened.
Keith McKay and Dee Branston use a canoe to carry food to a house on Jarvis Street in Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Stephen MacGillivray/The Canadian Press
“We’re in semi-recovery mode here. We’re trying to get our transportation routes open so that Monday when people are heading back to work, everything should be OK,” Tallon said Saturday.
An overnight fire prompted NB Power to cut electricity to most of Fredericton’s downtown Saturday morning — forcing people using sump pumps to resort to generators to keep them working.
Meantime, the Trans-Canada Highway remains closed between Oromocto and River Glade, with the transportation department reporting 84 road closures across the province.
Ahmed Dassouki, of the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure, said he expected the highway would be closed for several more days.