Flood warning in Pierrefonds

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

About 500 homes may be at risk of flooding in the Pierrefonds/Roxboro borough, estimated mayor Monique Worth at a press conference held on the shores of Rivière des Prairies on Château Pierrefonds Street Monday afternoon.

"They're not necessarily in trouble," she clarified. "But we want to be there to help out our citizens."

The borough received a warning along with Ile Bizard/Ste Geneviève from the City of Montreal this weekend to go on high alert, due to predictions of rising temperatures for the rest of the week and the inordinate amount of melting snow.

"We've filled up more than 1,000 bags of sand," said Worth. About 600 of them were used to create a barrier at the area where the conference was held, since some water has started to rise to ground level there.

Concerned residents may call and ask for a bag of sand for their home, said the borough's public works director Claude Lachance. "We don't approve every call, we evaluate the situation and decide whether someone really does need a bag of sand or not," explained Lachance.

Should water levels continue to rise, Worth said the borough was prepared to shelter people who may have to evacuate their homes. "We have the cultural centre, the community centres," she said. "I think the (Collège Gérald Godin) would be ready to help out."

According to Worth, the last time Pierrefonds faced a major flood was in 1998. "We don't want to go through that again," she said.

Borough director Jacques Chan estimated around $30, 000 have been spent so far on flood prevention measures. He added Pierrefonds/Roxboro has an amount set aside for emergency procedures in their budget. "It comes from our surplus," he explained.

"We spend whatever we have to spend," said Worth.