Flood fears persist in French River after recent rain

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The rain that fell on Tuesday in northeastern Ontario wasn’t great news for those dealing with imminent flooding, but communities like the Municipality of French River continue to monitor conditions.

After two weeks under a state of emergency, the community reports conditions to be stable; however, the impact from the recent rain won’t be known for a few days.

“Hopefully, it means we can take the little bit of rain that comes if it continues to rain. That means the water will rise,” said Mayor Gisèle Pageau.

Rain is adding insult to injury for Claude Lacasse, who owns a business right on the French River.

Owned by the Lacasse family for the past 67 years, the French River Supply Post and Marina is currently sitting under between one and two feet of water. With staff saying it’s hard to tell where the parking lot ends and the river begins.

If not for the water that has flooded the business on Supply Post Road, Lacasse told CTV News that he would have been busy getting ready to open for the summer, as that normally happens on the first weekend in May, but he says it is now delayed at least a month.

“You worry about the wood, the structure of the wood and all that. That’s all buckling and the shop is a cement floor so that’s going to wash out underneath,” Lacasse said while showing CTV News the damage that’s already been done on Tuesday.

It’s also not the first time the business has flooded. CTV News was there in May 2019 when similar flooding made its way inside the structure.

But despite the challenges, Claude has been running the business since the 1990s when he took over from his parents.

“They never got flooded and then we got flooded three times in the past eight years,” Lacasse said.

“So, there is a problem – hopefully, somebody solves it. We can blame Mother Nature but I’m pretty sure there’s a problem further up somewhere.”

Lacasse is referring to the water being released from dams upstream in the watershed.

“It’s a challenge in working together with all of our partners in the watershed system to try to equalize the burden on everybody in the flood levels,” said French River CAO Marc Gagnon.

Gagnon told CTV News that the French River is the main outlet for Lake Nipissing and snowpack from the northern part of the watershed still has to make it through the system.

Currently, the conditions in the municipality are stable and similar to 2019 levels, but there is another added concern: recreational boaters now on the water.

“Last weekend, we had boaters on the river who were making lots of wakes and one of those big wakes tore down a wall of sandbags for a property, which meant that that property got flooded,” Pageau said.

Along with the warning to boaters to drive respectfully while on high waters, the community is also reminding drivers that there are still several roadways which are closed and impassable due to flooding.

“We’re really hoping for sunshine,” said Pageau.