Gatineau flood victim awaits aid in gutted home as winter nears

Winter is coming, and RoxanneBriand's housein the eastGatineau community of Masson-Angers has neither insulation nor a furnace.

Briand and her partner were forced from their home near the Ottawa Riverduring spring flooding on May 3, after spending three weeks trying to keep the water out.

Winter is getting close and we're wondering if we're going to be able to hold on.- RoxanneBriand

The basement flooded entirelyand the main floor took on about 15 centimetresof water.

They stayed in a motel for two months, during which time they emptied their home's soddenbasement, tore up the main floor and pulled out all the water-logged insulation.

But as the weeks dragged on without inspection reports ordamage assessmentsfrom the provinceto finance repairs,theyeventually decidedto move back into to their guttedhome.

Now Briandis calling on the Quebec governmentspeed up aid for flood victims like her.

'Winter is getting close'

"We have wood plank as a floor right now, and I have kind of a sink." Briandtold CBC Radio'sOttawa Morningin an interview Tuesday.

"Everything's just put together temporarily because we know that it's all got tocome out again anyway. But winter is getting close and we're wondering if we're going to be able to hold on."

Briandblames disorganizationand a lack of adequately trained staff for the delays.

"I think they have put people in place whothey call analysts who don't really understand the program, and I don't know how that can happen.... You have different people, different analysts, who give different answers to the same question. So it seems like nobody really knows which way to turn on this whole thing," she said.

Protest held over the weekend

The Quebecgovernment says 278 municipalities were flooded this spring and more than 5,000 residences affected, while 4,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes.

Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux has repeatedly asked the public for patience as the government works its way through thousands of requests for assistance.

In July, Coiteux said he'd hired a task force to speed up the process and thatthe reports would be ready by mid-August.

But Sunday, several dozenfrustrated homeowners who had still not received the promised reports held a rally in Montrealto protest the government's response to the spring floods.

Briand attended.

"I don't know anybody who's been flooded who buys the explanation ... about the delays," she said."We all have quite good ideas. If he wants to meet with us, we could give him some clues on how we can accelerate the whole process."

'Personal response' promised

At a news conference later Tuesday morning in Montreal, Coiteux announced a series ofmeasures meant to provide a "direct and personal response" to flood victims.

• As winter approaches, Quebec vows to improve response to spring flooding victims

"I'm certainly not here to tell you everything we're doing is perfect. I'm here to say the opposite. It's not perfect, and I'm telling you we're hearing the message on the ground that we could be doing better," he said during a news conference in Montreal's Pierrefonds Tuesday morning, one of theareas worst hit by the flooding that inundated hundreds of homes.

Coiteuxsaid the government will organize days where representatives from affected municipalitiesand the province will be available under one roofto answer any questions residentsmay have about their compensation claims.

There willalsobe new agreements with community organizations to help those still living in hotels, he said.

The other measures are more administrative, aimed at improving communication and information sharing between different levels and branches of government, and cutting red tape.

'A huge, tremendous amount of stress'

The task force hired in July hasn't helped, Briand said. No one on her street has been able to rebuild so far.

"If these people actually knew how the program worked and were familiar in the same way... the problem is the inconsistencies throughout the whole thing," she said.

"It's unbelievable. It's a huge, tremendous amount of stress, anxiety you can throw in all of those words. Most people are now being put on medication to deal with all of this, and what's it like? It's very sad. Because we do live in Canada, we have a great country, and we should be able to help our own people.

"I'm going to deal with it one day at a time. I don't know what I'm going to do."