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When flooding hit Constance Bay early last May, Karalee Shaw Plourde was too busy helping out with flood relief efforts at the village’s community centre to notice that she would soon be a flood victim herself.
Plourde’s modest frame house was, after all, not on the water side of Baillie Drive. There were no sandbags around her house. But slowly, water was bubbling up through the foundation in her basement, eventually forming a moving creek. New aquifers had appeared underground and were undermining the foundation, she later learned.
Plourde looked on with growing horror. The house shifted and buckled. Black mould was crawling up the walls. When a tree fell on Plourde’s car in July, she and her daughters had no other choice but to vacate and rent a nearby house. In August, Plourde was still pumping out water at the rate of 18 gallons a minute.
On Tuesday, Plourde watched her house being demolished, one of two Constance Bay homes that will be flattened in the next few days because they are beyond redemption.
“It wasn’t just our house. It was our home,” said Plourde, a freelance graphic designer and single mother to Kiersten, 10 and Kaylee, 8.
The plan is to rebuild. But there’s a real problem — even with provincial disaster relief funding, each of the two families is still short $45,000. Each is paying both rent and a mortgage on an uninhabitable house, soon be a hole in the ground.
Plourde and her daughters had lived in a one-bedroom apartment while she saved up the money for a down payment. She bought the former cottage with an addition in May 2016, a year before the flood.
Plourde had big plans for the house. She repainted the kitchen cabinets, and her girls scouted around for furniture that could be salvaged. Kiersten decorated her attic bedroom with turquoise accents and enlisted her grandmother to help sew the curtains.
“It’s very hard on her,” said Kathy Winters as a tearful Plourde watched a backhoe tear through the walls of her house on Tuesday. “There was life in this house.”
Karalee Shaw Plourde says goodbye to her kitchen before the demolition begins.
In the coming weeks, after the debris of the house is removed and a new septic tank is installed, a new foundation for a 1,250-square-foot slab-on-grade house will be poured. A team of Mennonite workers has volunteered help frame and roof the new house through the Mennonite Disaster Services.
But even with the help from the Mennonites, Plourde still faces that $45,000 gap. Her insurance company deemed the flood to be an “act of God.” It will be spring at the earliest before the family can move in. Perhaps longer, if she can’t get the money to pay for costs such as flooring and electrical.
Len Russell, director of flood relief for the Constance and Buckham’s Bay Community Association, said Plourde’s situation points out the irony of the province’s flood relief program. The program is not insurance. It does not pay out based on the loss, it pays out up to 90 per cent of the cash paid out. That means most people have to pay at least 10 per cent in cash. Expenses like new septic systems, which cost $20,000-plus, are eligible for only depreciated compensation. There is no credit for getting donated materials or labour, he said.
“The provincial program really only works for people who were moderately affected and those who have a lot of spare credit. Even if you’re comfortable when something like this happens, the safety net is not that great. People just can’t pay $5,000 for a new furnace and wait for a cheque in the mail,” he said.
The community association raised $70,000 for flood relief this spring and has about $30,000 left in the fund. The association’s board has set that money aside to go to the two families and is looking to raise the rest. (To donate, visit cbbca.ca and click on “flood relief.”)
“We have to bring the cost of the house down to zero to make it affordable for these people. No matter what happens, they’re out of pocket,” he said.
The flood relief effort has already been the recipient of thousands of volunteer hours and free and discounted equipment as well as construction and cleanup materials. Tomlinson, a cartage and construction company, for example, is taking care of the Dumpsters and disposal of the demolition debris, a value of almost $20,000 for both the houses being knocked down, said Russell.
“And I can’t say enough about the difference the Mennonites have made. They’ve been with us all the way through.”
The demolition job should be completed Wednesday.
But he is getting impatient over what he sees as the city’s failure to step in and help. “We have two families who are perched right on the edge.”
West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry said he understands those concerns. “When you talk about people falling through the cracks, this is what you’re talking about.”
El-Chantiry and Mayor Jim Watson will be speaking to the Red Cross in early December. “We really need to help those families,” said El-Chantiry. “Anything I can do, I am willing to do.”
Stress keeps Plourde up at night, but she is grateful for everything that has been done so far. “It’s an amazing community,” she said.
Plourde has been pretty amazing herself, said Russell.
“She’s got two wonderful children, and she keeps her chin up for them.”
查看原文...
Plourde’s modest frame house was, after all, not on the water side of Baillie Drive. There were no sandbags around her house. But slowly, water was bubbling up through the foundation in her basement, eventually forming a moving creek. New aquifers had appeared underground and were undermining the foundation, she later learned.
Plourde looked on with growing horror. The house shifted and buckled. Black mould was crawling up the walls. When a tree fell on Plourde’s car in July, she and her daughters had no other choice but to vacate and rent a nearby house. In August, Plourde was still pumping out water at the rate of 18 gallons a minute.
On Tuesday, Plourde watched her house being demolished, one of two Constance Bay homes that will be flattened in the next few days because they are beyond redemption.
“It wasn’t just our house. It was our home,” said Plourde, a freelance graphic designer and single mother to Kiersten, 10 and Kaylee, 8.
The plan is to rebuild. But there’s a real problem — even with provincial disaster relief funding, each of the two families is still short $45,000. Each is paying both rent and a mortgage on an uninhabitable house, soon be a hole in the ground.
Plourde and her daughters had lived in a one-bedroom apartment while she saved up the money for a down payment. She bought the former cottage with an addition in May 2016, a year before the flood.
Plourde had big plans for the house. She repainted the kitchen cabinets, and her girls scouted around for furniture that could be salvaged. Kiersten decorated her attic bedroom with turquoise accents and enlisted her grandmother to help sew the curtains.
“It’s very hard on her,” said Kathy Winters as a tearful Plourde watched a backhoe tear through the walls of her house on Tuesday. “There was life in this house.”
Karalee Shaw Plourde says goodbye to her kitchen before the demolition begins.
In the coming weeks, after the debris of the house is removed and a new septic tank is installed, a new foundation for a 1,250-square-foot slab-on-grade house will be poured. A team of Mennonite workers has volunteered help frame and roof the new house through the Mennonite Disaster Services.
But even with the help from the Mennonites, Plourde still faces that $45,000 gap. Her insurance company deemed the flood to be an “act of God.” It will be spring at the earliest before the family can move in. Perhaps longer, if she can’t get the money to pay for costs such as flooring and electrical.
Len Russell, director of flood relief for the Constance and Buckham’s Bay Community Association, said Plourde’s situation points out the irony of the province’s flood relief program. The program is not insurance. It does not pay out based on the loss, it pays out up to 90 per cent of the cash paid out. That means most people have to pay at least 10 per cent in cash. Expenses like new septic systems, which cost $20,000-plus, are eligible for only depreciated compensation. There is no credit for getting donated materials or labour, he said.
“The provincial program really only works for people who were moderately affected and those who have a lot of spare credit. Even if you’re comfortable when something like this happens, the safety net is not that great. People just can’t pay $5,000 for a new furnace and wait for a cheque in the mail,” he said.
The community association raised $70,000 for flood relief this spring and has about $30,000 left in the fund. The association’s board has set that money aside to go to the two families and is looking to raise the rest. (To donate, visit cbbca.ca and click on “flood relief.”)
“We have to bring the cost of the house down to zero to make it affordable for these people. No matter what happens, they’re out of pocket,” he said.
The flood relief effort has already been the recipient of thousands of volunteer hours and free and discounted equipment as well as construction and cleanup materials. Tomlinson, a cartage and construction company, for example, is taking care of the Dumpsters and disposal of the demolition debris, a value of almost $20,000 for both the houses being knocked down, said Russell.
“And I can’t say enough about the difference the Mennonites have made. They’ve been with us all the way through.”
The demolition job should be completed Wednesday.
But he is getting impatient over what he sees as the city’s failure to step in and help. “We have two families who are perched right on the edge.”
West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry said he understands those concerns. “When you talk about people falling through the cracks, this is what you’re talking about.”
El-Chantiry and Mayor Jim Watson will be speaking to the Red Cross in early December. “We really need to help those families,” said El-Chantiry. “Anything I can do, I am willing to do.”
Stress keeps Plourde up at night, but she is grateful for everything that has been done so far. “It’s an amazing community,” she said.
Plourde has been pretty amazing herself, said Russell.
“She’s got two wonderful children, and she keeps her chin up for them.”
查看原文...
