Eight months after flood waters ravaged their Outaouais properties, some families are still waiting to return home.
It's hard to believe when you look today at the beauty of the frozen Ottawa River, the damaging toll it took on so many homes and the lives of the people living there.
And today, many are still struggling.
“There is a river in my back yard,” says Michael McCann, as he shows the video he shot earlier this spring of the flooding in and around his home on Rue Hurtubise in Gatineau. From that scene, to now, as he proudly shows off his new kitchen,
“Nice beautiful island with lots of cupboard space,” he says.
“We left on May 5th when water was about 15 inches on the main floor,” says McCann, “We shut the power off and said we're out of here.”
It's almost 8 months later now and the McCanns are still out of here but so close to moving back in, just not in time for Christmas.
“This will be the first year in 48 years that I haven't been in my home for Christmas. It’s going to be really different.”
The McCanns were among hundreds of residents affected by unprecedented spring flooding in both Ottawa and the Outaouais. Many have moved back in after renovating or completely rebuilding but 56 families, 115 people in the Outaouais, will spend their Christmas in hotels or apartments sponsored by the Red Cross.
That’s a lot of people still out of their homes, still waiting for compensation and frustrated with the delays and the seemingly endless paperwork.
Nicolas Page and his family had to replace their whole foundation and couldn't wait for all the compensation to kick in.
“We just needed to get it done to move back into house,” says Page, outside in the cold weather trying to get some work done on the house, “It’s a big asset so it’s a big loss if we didn’t work on it as soon as possible.”
Michael McCann may not be in his house for Christmas but he couldn't resist a little Christmas spirit.
“I came in one day and I was down in the dumps about a week ago,” he says, “and so I set up this tree with lights in it.”
This time we're going to my daughter’s place for Christmas. It’s payback time,” he says, “but we still have to cook the turkey.”
The Quebec government is still meeting with flood victims, looking for way to improve its flood assistance program.
But that's not helping folks in the short term or even, clearly, the long term now 8 months in since their homes were destroyed.