The city wants to help. But it’s having trouble tracking people down.
There are now more than a dozen contracting firms in place ready to clean up homes affected by last week’s flood. More than 460 homeowners without insurance have asked for the city’s safe program that will clean up the damage free of charge. But there’s a problem finding out who or where these people are.
“People have left their homes. They’ve moved to other accommodations and now we’re finding that we’re knocking on doors, we’re phoning them and we can’t find these individuals,” acting mayor Coun. Rebecca Johnson said Tuesday morning. “So we’re ready to go move into their homes to have them cleaned out.”
“We’re thinking of putting signs on doors but then they’re not coming back to their homes so how do we get them?”
No one knows how many people are part of this problem but city officials say it’s significant. Facilities and fleet manager Michael Smith said the crews, which includes a Mennonite disaster team, want to get in touch with those affected by the end of the week. An estimated 25 per cent of people contacted say they don’t want or need the service but officials with the health unit may be called in to make that assessment. Crews will remove everything from debris to belongings that might pose a health hazard he said.
“Getting in there and actually ripping out anything that may have some health effects from the damage that they sustained to their basements.”
The Red Cross has set up registration centres at St. Peter’s Catholic Church and Confederation College to help people with everything from accommodations to care packages while homes are being cleaned. Spokesman David St. Georges said operating hours at the centre are 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. but will saty open as long as needed.
“We will continue to remain open as long as he community comes to us to have their needs assessed,” he said.
The city is still waiting for a provincial disaster assessment team to make its decision to declare the city and area a disaster. If declared, which officials hope is done by the end of the week, then the city becomes eligible to leverage its disaster relief fund that was approved by council Monday night. The damage could reach hundreds of millions of dollars in the city with more than 3,000 homes affected. While Premier Dalton McGuinty is not visiting the city, mayor Keith Hobbs said he’s not concerned that that means the declaration won’t happen.
“He (McGuinty) assured us the province will do everything they can to assist us,” Hobbs said.
As for the Atlantic sewage treatment plant, city infrastructure manager Darrell Matson said things continue to improve. A pump and motor started Monday afternoon and a second is expected to start up Tuesday. The one pump has already allowed the plant to exceed the average capacity of 60 megalitres per day. That means there has also been progress on getting the water level in the sewers back to its normal 4.1 metres.
“We do expect based upon the draws that we’re seeing and the amount of water being pumped out that we should be close to those levels by late (Tuesday) afternoon,” Matson said.
Engineers have started exploring the plant with underwater cameras for the breach, which is expected to be in an old part of the facility. Water continues to get into that part of the plant.
“We don’t know if it’s coming over something or around something or through something because that part of the plant is still underwater,” Matson said.
The city will reopen the 55 Plus Centres and West Thunder Community Centre Wednesday. An announcement is expected about the Canada Games Complex, Churchill and Volunteer Pool Wednesday morning.
