as flood waters stabilize, river-front residents brace for 'second pulse'
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tim mccoy walks through the flood waters at his house in constance bay on tuesday.
tony caldwell
/
postmedia
flood waters have started to stabilize on the ottawa river, but now residents in some flood-ravaged communities are bracing for a possible second surge.
it all depends on the weather and how fast snowpack melts in the northern reaches of the ottawa river basin, said allan joyner, a board member with west carleton disaster relief.
in the past there has typically been a seven- to 10-day lag between the crest of the first flood and the second pulse, joyner said.
“it will gradually go down until we get that second pulse of water. there’s still snow up there. you can see it on satellite images,” he said.
according to the ottawa river regulation planning board’s april 22 update, water levels and flows were stabilizing between lac coulonge and lac deschênes, the stretch of the ottawa river from chats falls dam near fitzroy harbour to the deschênes rapids at britannia. spring runoff from the central unregulated portion of the basin is slowly starting to decrease and northern reservoirs continue to retain runoff from those regions, the planning board said.
“between gatineau-hull and carillon, water levels and flows are expected to start stabilizing later today (april 22). as spring runoff from the central unregulated portion of the basin recedes, spring runoff from the abitibi-timiskaming area will increase, leading to a gradual increase in water levels and flows between mattawa and pembroke over the next few days,” its notice said.
the first phase of the freshet appears to have peaked at or just below the level recorded in 2023, the city of ottawa said.
the city is urging residents to keep in place protective measures such as sandbag walls and to keep monitoring the situation because conditions are dependent on weather and any remaining inflow from the northern basin.
major flood levels — defined as water levels where one or several streets begin to flood, affecting several homes, buildings or entire neighborhoods — have been exceeded at many locations between lac coulonge and near the montreal area.
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the city of gatineau has reported that water levels and flows are stabilizing there, too. the peak water level, 15 centimetres lower than previously forecast, was expected to be reached on april 22.
about 190 buildings in gatineau were potentially at risk of flooding and 296 buildings were at risk of being isolated for a total of about 486 buildings. as of april 22, gatineau said 46 streets had been affected by rising water levels, including 13 of them only accessible by waterways.
in west carleton, flooding has been reported at willola beach near fitzroy harbor, vydon acres and armitage avenue near dunrobin as well as constance bay, where some homes blocks away from the ottawa river have reported basement flooding due to water seeping in from the saturated soil.
flooding has walloped communities on the ottawa river three times since the “flood of the century” in may 2017, followed by another deluge in 2019 and a third flood in 2023.
west carleton disaster relief was formed in 2017. since then, there has been a major disaster almost every year, ranging from a tornado that hit dunrobin and kinburn in 2018 to the 2022 derecho to a drought in 2025. the volunteer organization, which is similar to community emergency response teams in the united states that prepare for and respond to local disasters, is the only one of its kind in ottawa.
a fourth major flood in less than a decade? the metrics for 10-year and 100-year floods no longer apply, joyner said.
“i would consider this a new typical year.”
because of the frequency of disaster, there has been evidence of volunteer fatigue, he said. still, west carleton is a tight-knit rural community, and local businesses have also stepped up to offer their services.
an aerial view of ottawa river floodwaters at constance bay on tuesday.
tony caldwell
/
postmedia
at the constance bay community centre, liam mackey is a member of a team of six from canton’s mindful gardens, near kinburn, who are filling sandbags. he lives near renfrew and has not been affected by flooding, but he has noticed sandbagging at the horton works garage.
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“we were doing some team-building work and we saw they needed help. our boss said, ‘go and see what you can do. you have half a day,'” mackey said.
constance bay resident diane boisvert did her first stint as a sandbagging volunteer in 2017.
“i have never been affected, but i have been affected by the people who were affected. every time, every year, it breaks my heart,” she said.
at west carleton secondary school, students were filling sandbags in the third such blitz since the 2019 flood.
the city of ottawa delivers sand to the high school, the students work to fill the bags and the city delivers the bags to wherever they are needed most, said amie lee, a science teacher at the school.
over the course of the day, students will fill tens of thousands of sandbags, said lee, who lives on armitage avenue near constance bay. both ends of the street are prone to flooding.
“lots of these kids have are currently experiencing flooding or have friends who are experiencing flooding,” lee said. “a lot of kids come from kanata north or morgan’s grant. the person sitting in the chair next to them may be experiencing flooding. it helps to build empathy.”
gleb bamchishen moved into a waterfront house in constance bay last august.
“we saw the statistics before buying the house. we hoped that we would not get such a huge flood in our first year,” he said.
the house, which has a crawlspace and not a basement, is on a raised island on the lot. it took more than a dozen volunteers to build a wall of sandbags that protects the lowest side of the house, he said.
“this amount of work isn’t normal,” said bamchishen, who said he would be much better prepared next time.
he has no regrets about buying a house on the ottawa river, though.
“it was completely worth it. the neighbours said there would be flooding. but look at the view.”
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