Flood Fallout

It has been 10 days since our community was evacuated, and Tom and I are still not allowed back in our condo. Although our unit was completely unscathed, the parkade was completely submerged, and it must be cleaned out and decontaminated before mechanical systems can be repaired, power can be restored and the building can be deemed safe for habitation again.

We can still have access to our unit, so we can come and go, and pick up our essentials. Compared to the thousands of people who were affected by this flood, we are very lucky.

So here's the run-down.

When the parkade flooded, there were still some cars down there that residents weren't home to save, or were just too late to save. As a result, the water in the parkade was gasoline contaminated.

The parkade, the day after.

As you can see, there is a lot of debris in the water. Not everyone has a storage unit in the parkade, so some people (ourselves included) stack a few things in our parking stalls. All of that stuff floated loose when the water came in. We have recently heard that the water was also contaminated with sewage back-up, so almost everything that was in the parkade is unsalvageable.

Gasoline contaminated, debris-ridden parkade water.

Clean up started almost immediately. By Monday, crews had started pumping out water (safely, they had to take the gasoline contamination into consideration), and slowly, the debris was no longer floating, and a thick layer of mud remained. The mud is up to two feet deep in some areas! Water keeps seeping in, so the result is a mud soup. All this needs to be removed from the parkade.

Muddy parkade driveway.

The next big task was towing all of the remaining cars out of the parkade. The condo parking lot is now a graveyard of muddy, waterlogged vehicles. In fact, there were many more cars in the parkade than I had imagined. There must be at least three dozen in the parking lot, not to mention more that are being removed every day. And some that have already been towed away for insurance appraisal. There was even a beautiful Jaguar.

Muddy, waterlogged cars.

And now comes the slow process of mud removal and clearing junk. And oh... The stuff that is coming out of these parkades! The parking lot is littered with tupperware containers, coolers, camping gear, Christmas tree ornaments and tires.

A pile of mud-covered bikes.

More parkade debris.

The condo board has not been able to give us a timeline of when we'll be able to go home, with good reason. The headache of organizing insurance adjustors, general restoration contractors, engineers, environmental consultants and trying to keep hundreds of residents informed is a monumental task. They have diligently informed us of their progress each day on the condo website.

It sounds like at the very least, we will be on our own for another two weeks. But the restoration contractors are mobilizing today with an additional 20-30 crew members to speed up the pace.

Since then, we have been relying on the hospitality of the Tom's parents, and soon, Ashley and Andrew. We are very appreciative! Now we can only hope that we'll receive good news about the progress. 

Happy Canada Day weekend!