Water Go Away!

Wakefield and Gatineau are in the news for our flooding due to "perfect storm" conditions. 1) Spring melt "Freshet" conditions, 2) Two weeks of almost non-stop raining, 3) Hydro Quebec letting go of excess water from their massive reservoirs.  This natural disaster is not over as the dynamic flux of the problem is shifting to downstream communities along the Ottawa river. Today is May 8 and it finally has stopped raining - now its snowing!  

One waterfront property owner in Gatineau who has had enough!

View from 24 Sussex near Rockliffe Park

I've lived on this gentle Gatineau river for 28 years and I have never seen her move so fast or rise so high. Part of the problem is the wide area of this high rainfall and all ponds, lakes and streams are full and cascading into larger river systems. Nature cannot move this much water quickly so now the Gatineau and Rideau rivers has flooded the Ottawa river which has flooded the St. Lawrence and Montreal has now been declared an emergency with levees failing. This must be how it felt when New Orleans flooded!

This poor guy was working alone trying to sandbag his back yard in the city Gatineau

There are heart-warming scenes of whole families and communities working to sandbag homes


Now the Army has been called in but many say it's too late and they're not doing anything. I saw them driving around in their military tanks and waving to little kids but I never actually saw them providing help with sandbagging. This was left to the homeowners whose hands are raw and bleeding from filling and putting sandbags in place. Usually too little too late to stop the rising water levels. Times like this makes you appreciate the power and threat of nature.

There is some limited flooding in Wakefield and up the line in places like Alcove but so far, the dams seem to be doing its job! One strange anomaly I had to see with my own eyes, is a total reversal in water levels down the river from Wakefield around Cascades. It is a hydraulic trick of nature where the water is thundering through in rapids but the sheer flow has resulted in an eerie effect of never before seen low water levels along the shorelines.

Sections of the Gatineau near Cascades are now exposed with logs after being hidden for almost 100 years!


I heard people asking about this "anomaly" on CBC's Cross Country Checkup, but the host or experts obviously didn't know what caused this bizarre reversal in some sections of the river. The people living along these stretches are obviously safe from any flooding but getting caught in those rapids will give you the ride of your life.

The level mark of this bridge pillar over the Lapeche river in Wakefield says it all!

This section of flooding on the East side of the Wakefield covered bridge has weakened the bridge

Water mangled stairway by the Gatineau river in Alcove



I have included these photos as they tell the story better than words can. Some of us were thinking of building an ark but we forgot how many cubits it had to be. As someone who lives on a river, I do feel very sorry for most of the people whose homes have been flooded but... I honestly don't believe these humongous expensive homes should be so close to the edge of a natural river! There was a time when only the poor people would dare live along a waterway but now it's the uber rich which excludes me of course. I'm just really lucky that my house was built with river flooding in mind and that the Paugan dam did not break or let too much water go. Mind you, it would have been poetic justice to see ex-Senator Lavigne's house across the river from me become inundated by water. Especially after he got the municipality to drop the designated floodplain status. It's not about safety, it's about increased taxes! There is no doubt that many of the inundated houses I saw yesterday along the Gatineau and Ottawa rivers are on floodplain and they simply should not be there because they interfere with the natural flow of the river.

Whatever happens in the aftermath of this natural disaster, there will be some serious costs and hopefully some sober lessons to be learned. Will it dampen our appetite for having waterfront properties, I think not. Buyer beware because in the future houses this close to the water will not be insurable! Maybe it's not too late to build an ark?