It’s been one month since a record storm slammed Ottawa, dumping more than 100 millimetres of rain in the hardest hit neighbourhoods, and for some the cleanup is far from over. For one homeowner, the storm was a double whammy, causing tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage across two properties. “Its going to be many thousands, 50 to 100. We don’t know,” said Fanny Malingrey, who lives in the Crystal Beach neighbourhood. Malingrey and her family own two properties next door to each other. The basements of both homes suffered severe water damage. “It was such a massive event in the neighbourhood and all the remediation companies are overwhelmed,” said Malingrey. “They just came yesterday to do some work at my parents place because they live there and for us they came on Tuesday.” For those that live in the neighbourhood, it’s still a long road ahead in terms of the clean-up and the restoration efforts after the flood. Malingrey said she’s covered by insurance although they’re still waiting for work to be done. “We assumed that it would be faster, but in the neighbourhood there’s about 2,000 homes that flooded so I’m assuming there’s only so many companies,” she said. Ottawa councillor Theresa Kavanagh says thousands of residents reported flooding in their basements. “It’s coming up to 7,000 people that called 311,” said Kavanagh. “People are still coping and they’re still cleaning out their basements.” The City of Ottawa has called on the Ontario government to expand its Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians (DRAO). So far Crystal Beach isn’t covered. “I meet with the senior staff regularly of the city and they are still talking, but I don’t have anything concrete to show anyone yet. I know that the conversations are still going on.” For Malingrey, her family is staying positive and working ahead to get things done. “We were expecting that it would be many months,” she said.
