2,000 military personnel supporting volunteers in Ontario, Quebec, N.B. flood zones
Defence minister visits N.B., promises the Forces will stay as long as needed
Thousands of people across Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick are facing several more days of flooding as waters rise to record levels in some regions and slowly recede in others.
Efforts to hold back the water have seen thousands of volunteers, residents and military troops race to protect homes from rising waters; the closure of bridges and roads including one connecting Ottawa to Gatineau, Que., across the Ottawa River; and evacuations of thousands of homes.
The most dire situation is in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac, a suburb west of Montreal that was inundated Saturday night after the Lake of Two Mountains burst through a natural dike.
More than 5,000 residents were forced to grab what they could and flee as waist-high water filled their streets and homes. Another 1,500 people were evacuated from their homes the following day.
Quebec Public Security Minister Geneviève Guilbault said Monday the situation in Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac is still being monitored closely, and the evacuation order is still in effect, but that some people will able to briefly return to their homes to get belongings, medication and pets.
The military has helped build one new dike in Ste-Marthe-sur-le-Lac and is almost finished a second, said Guilbault, though she had no answer about why the dike in the bedroom community failed.
Guilbault acknowledged that Sainte-Marthe-sur-le-Lac sent a request to the Environment Ministry in February to have authorities improve the dike.
The moment a Ste Marthe evacuee was reunited with her 18-year-old cat Moune after having to leave him in the flooding home Saturday night. <a href="https://t.co/HpynAgJZAW">pic.twitter.com/HpynAgJZAW</a>
—@sarahleavittcbc"We are very vigilant regarding all dikes across Quebec. We have people all over the place to make surveillance," she said, adding that a temporary first dike has been erected, and a second is almost completed to ensure the water doesn't spread further.
A total of about 9,500 are now out of their homes in Quebec — two-thirds of them in Ste-Marthe-sur-le-Lac.
Quebec Premier François Legault visited the scene on Sunday and announced $1 million in immediate funding to the Red Cross to ensure the evacuees' immediate needs are met. He said it was "almost a miracle" that everyone was safe.
River to peak this week
An estimated one million sandbags are standing between the bloated Ottawa River and residences and businesses in the capital. More are in place in Gatineau, Que., on the river's opposite bank. Even so, whole riverfront neighbourhoods are flooded.
As of Monday afternoon, Pierre Poirier, Ottawa's head of security and emergency management, said water levels are nearing 2017 flood peak levels, and the projection is for them to peak Wednesday at about 50 centimetres above 2017 levels. Other officials have said it could peak on Wednesday or Thursday.
The Chaudière Bridge — used by about 19,000 vehicles and 1,350 cyclists every day to get across the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Gatineau — remains closed.
Hydro Ottawa has opened up every span of its dam at Chaudière Falls, only the second time in its 100-year history it has been forced to do so.
CBC News received special permission from Transport Canada and local officials to send a drone to capture footage of flooded areas in Gatineau just across the river from central Ottawa. Drones are not allowed within nine kilometres of flooded areas in Quebec.
Canadian Armed Forces personnel are also packing and stacking sandbags in central Ontario's cottage country where flooding has prompted the declaration of states of emergency in the communities of Bracebridge, Muskoka Lakes, Huntsville and Minden Hills. And more rain is forecast for the region later this week.
"This is still a multi-day event. We are not near the end, but maybe the finish line is coming into sight for some areas," Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smith said Monday. He also said 30 more Canadian Forces members will be arriving to join the 60 who arrived Sunday.
"I will say this every single time I have a chance to [talk] into a microphone: thank you very much from the bottom of our collective hearts, from everyone who's experiencing trouble right now. Your assistance has literally changed lives and saved the property that people have worked so hard to acquire."
Public officials in many places have asked more homeowners to consider leaving before the water makes some roads impassable. The military has deployed more members to combat flooding in Canada than to combat zones overseas, and Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan is promising even more to regions that need the help.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said Monday that some 2,000 Canadian Forces personnel are currently deployed to flood zones.
Some of the affected areas have been hit for the first time, according to Conrad Sauvé, president and CEO of the Canadian Red Cross.
"They've never been flooded, which is something new," Sauvé told CBC News on Monday. "We train our volunteers to make sure they detect some emotional signs as well and refer people to the appropriate support as well.
"This is something new in Canada, and I think we need to prepare ourselves a lot more."
Watch aerial footage of the flooded Ottawa River:
N.B. officials hope worst is over
Meanwhile, the forecast for southern New Brunswick calls for floodwaters to slowly recede in most areas this week; however, communities along the St. John River from Fredericton to Saint John remain above flood stage.
Defence Minister Sajjan visited Randolph Island in the Saint John area, where waters from the St. John River rose during heavy rainfall on Saturday. He is scheduled to meet with residents, local leaders and Canadian Forces deployed on the disaster response operation.
"We'll be here as long as we're needed," said Sajjan, who added that the province will not be billed by the military for its efforts.
"We don't put any dates onto this. This is all situation dependent on the ground, and the co-ordination that will happen — just like how the co-ordination was done to come here."
Officials in New Brunswick are urging patience as floodwaters recede in some regions, saying there's a long way to go before the response can become a recovery effort.
Emergency Measures said Monday that an aerial survey showed more than 16,000 properties experienced flooding, though the water did not reach every building in those areas.
More than 80 roads across the province remain closed because of flooding, including a major section of the Trans-Canada highway between Oromocto and Riverglade.
Wayne Tallon, director of Fredericton's Emergency Measures Organization, said he is optimistic the worst of this year's flooding is over.
"The good news is that we hope that's the height it'll reach, and it'll start going down," he told CBC New Brunswick.
The record flooding is expected to push losses for Canadian homeowners from extreme weather to more than $1 billion just four months in to this year. The figure was close to $2 billion for all of 2018.
That's led governments to look at "alternative solutions in order to shield the taxpayer from the continued bailouts," said Craig Stewart, vice-president of federal affairs with the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
Federal, provincial and territorial emergency-management ministers appear to be most interested in a British model that would see the people living in high-risk flood areas moved out of harm's way and a public insurance program maintained for the remainder of homes.
Quebec is offering $200,000 to people with deep damage to their homes to move out of flood zones, an idea that the federal Liberals say they'll also consider, along with spending on infrastructure to mitigate the effects of floods and extreme weather from climate change.
With files from CBC News