Gatineau residents survey damage in flood-ravaged neighbourhood
"I feel, myself, lucky that I can still get to my place," Gaston Ethier says
Gaston and Fern Ethier took a boat on Wednesday to go home to Blais Street to survey the damage to their basement. They count themselves among the lucky ones.
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CBC Ottawa's Ashley Burke took a tour of the Pointe-Gatineau neighbourhood with them and brought back these images.
A parked car sits abandoned at Saint-Louis Street as flood waters slowly recede in the Pointe-Gatineau neighbourhood.
The Ethiers investigate their basement, where they had placed buckets on the floor to raise some of their property. It didn't work.
But most of their valuables were taken to the first floor and were spared.
Gaston Ethier said he is grateful the water didn't go past his basement.
"I feel, myself, lucky that I can still get to my place," he said. "But I feel terrible for all of those people."
"I would have had beautiful tulips," Fern Ethier laments. "They are under the water. Drowned. Squished."
A groundhog finds higher ground on the steps of the Depanneur Saint-Franois on the flooded Saint-Franois-Xavier Street in Gatineau, Quebec.
Madeleine Bastien kayaks past flooded homes and cars in the neighbourhood. She said when last she looked there was more than six feet of water in her basement.
"It helps me to come back here and see the water level going down," she said. "We're entering another phase."
Fern Ethier said after surveying the damage at her home she's happybecausefor her, it's over.
Sandbags ordered for the Pointe-Gatineau area go unused as water levels recede in the region. But they will remain at least until the weekend since there is a chance of further rain showers.
Photos, reporting by Ashley Burke
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