St. Catharines residents fear more rain as they still await flood assistance

People in St. Catharines were looking to the sky with fear on Monday.

They were wondering if the rain would mean another round of severe flooding, while they say they’re still left on their own to deal with their flood disasters earlier this month.

These folks have already gone through the trauma of massive floods and severe damage to their homes and they still haven’t recovered from those floods.

With rain heading to St. Catharines and Environment Canada predicting possible 50 mm or more, it’s landing on people already stressed out.

“When the thunderstorms are forecasting a lot of rain it really is frightening,” says one resident.

They’re afraid of a repeat of the floods in late July and early August when three massive rainstorms hit St. Catharines in a row, swamping basements with backed up sewage.

There’s still no total on the number of houses flooded or an exact damage estimate, except that it’s easily in the tens of millions of dollars.

“It was a huge amount of damage. All of the mechanical stuff, the furnace, water heater, washer and dryer, the chest freezer,” says Caroline McIntyre, a resident in the area.

Residents like McIntyre say they’ve been left waiting to hear how much insurance will cover and how much they’ll have to pay themselves.

“I don’t know if every company is like this but my own company I’m with, has been basically absent,” says McIntyre.

“We’re still waiting. We don’t know when we’ll get any payment,” says Linda McIntyre, a St. Catharines homeowner.

They say the costs to individual homeowners can hit tens of thousands of dollars and many people can’t afford it on their own.

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“The government needs to step in and help us. There’s too many people with their homes destroyed. There’s so much damage here I don’t know how you can fix it yourself without some help,” says Linda.

The city’s Mayor says the provincial response is disappointing.

He says the province insists the kind of sewer-back-ups that happened in St. Catharines don’t qualify for provincial disaster assistance.

“It has to be overland flooding and it is only what is necessary to get the home to a habitable state. I think there’s going to be a lot of people that are frustrated with that. I know I am frustrated with that. That’s not what we want to hear,” says St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe.

“This is going to put a lot of people in a very difficult situation because the provincial program just doesn’t seem to be covering it.”

Siscoe says the provincial disaster program was created before southern Ontario saw the kind of catastrophic storms it’s been getting.

He adds that the province should be expanding its disaster assistance.

Resident Mike Enns says people aren’t getting much help except from other neighbours.

“A lot of neighbours are still dealing with the effects of sewage soaked furniture coming out of the basement. They’re not sure of what to do with the mold. Most of our neighbours have half of a house now, they’re left with empty basements and not sure of what to do with it,” says Enns. “So we’re living in fear of rain like today, if we’re going to have wet basements again.”

The mayor says the city is doing everything it can to help residents and he’s pressing the province for more help.

He also says Monday’s rain in St. Catharines is nowhere near the catastrophic storms that hit earlier this month and flooding shouldn’t be a major problem.

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