Spring flooding: “It is at the end, the rest of us” – a disaster discouraged

Photo Agence QMI, Joel Lemay
The City of Rigaud, in Montérégie, Saturday April 22, 2017.

QMI agency

Monday, July 10, 2017 21:24

UPDATE
Monday, July 10, 2017 21:24

Look at this article

Many of the victims of the floods in the spring must continue to fight to find out what they can do with their home. Several of them are completely exhausted, including Rigaud, in Montérégie.

By far, it seems that life has resumed its normal course. But, up close, the signs of what happened are still very visible. And, when you enter the houses, you realize that the nightmare continues for the victims.

Like the other residences in the area, the house where was born and grew up Sylvie Ménard remains uninhabitable.

“This is my kitchen, starts the disaster. This is my bathroom! We installed a toilet. My bath is on the porch, outside.”

Ms. Ménard has not the right to renovate his house as long as Quebec has not given its consent.

“It is at the end, the rest of us. It is… I go to work, you know, and… I shouldn’t have to work. But I’m going to like this”, she said in tears.

Under the government plan, up to 200 victims could be expropriated.

“We, the City of Rigaud, prior to the issuance of permits for reconstruction, is expected after the documents of the ministry of public Security,” explains the mayor of Rigaud, Hans Gruenwald.

The City has created an office with inspectors, the services of the Red Cross, who manage the hosting. The mayor, like its citizens, is waiting for the decision of Quebec.

“If they me destroy, they will try to destroy it. Me, no, there is nobody who is going to touch. My foundations are correct,” says Sylvie Ménard, who does not want to leave. She lives in a recreational vehicle in the last three months and now wants to come home.

“A chance that I have my two grandchildren, who are my little treasures. I think that it is thanks to them that…”, testifies to it without being able to finish his sentence.

The committee of the victims, opposed the expropriations, and it believes that Quebec imposes double standards, in particular by preventing the people to raise their field to be able to keep their home. The meeting planned Monday evening in Rigaud looked tense.