‘Ottawa’ Ontario Floods: ‘I have Never Seen Anything like this’: Renfrew County Lakes and Rivers Inundated
Graham O’Marra has lived on Golden Lake for 17 years. And with most of his property underwater on Friday, he says he has never seen anything like this.
The water is almost hip-deep in spots. O’Marra and his wife, Danielle, and 18-month-old son, Cash, ferry themselves to and from their car by canoe.
By Friday afternoon, there were more than 400 sandbags around his house, with dozens more to be filled by the end of the day. O’Marra was hoping to keep the water away from the septic tank. He has seven sump pumps going “full throttle,” including three in his garage.
“I need to keep them going all the time. I’ve been trying to get ahead of it, but I’m not gaining.”
On Friday afternoon, Municipal Affairs Minister Bill Maura activated Ontario’s Disaster Recovery Assistance Program for the parts of Renfrew County most severely affected by flooding. The program offers reimbursement for basic necessary costs if a natural disaster causes widespread damage to private property. This includes the costs of cleaning, repairing and replacing essential property.
The legislation is complicated — there is a $500 deductible, only 120 days to apply and reimbursement only kicks in after insurance has been exhausted, for example — but Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke MPP John Yakabuski, who pressed Mauro to activate the program, is urging constituents to keep receipts and photographs of damage to their properties.
Yakabuski has heard from constituents on the Madawaska, Bonnechere and Ottawa rivers and the lakes they feed into, especially Round Lake and Golden Lake. “As an MPP, I have never seen the Bonnechere in this condition.”