How the storm's aftermath is taking its toll on some Montrealers

Donald Wilson barely had time to turn off his and his neighbour's circuit breakers when a gush of rainwater burst into his semi-basement apartment in Montreal's Saint-Henri neighbourhood, plowing everything in its path during Thursday's severe thunderstorm.

The 79-year-old artist could only watch as his home filled with over a metre of water, becoming completely unlivable in a matter of minutes.

Trapped inside the bathroom was his cat, Ginger Bread.

"I figured he was dead," said Wilson, choking back tears. "My only friend." 

The feline managed to survive after Wilson's fridge toppled over and broke down the bathroom door.

On Friday, Wilson's apartment of 27 years was in shambles and much of his life's work, including paintings and miniature ship models, had been destroyed. 

His is one of about 130 Montreal residences that were flooded late Thursday afternoon. In a couple of hours, a month's worth of rain poured down on Montreal, according to the city.

"No city in the world has the infrastructure to handle that much rain," said Montreal spokesperson Philippe Sabourin.

Wilson is now relying on the kindness of neighbours until his insurance can find him a new place to live. He says this is the second time in 11 years that his house has flooded. 

Several blocks north of Wilson's home, people gathered on Friday at the Resilience Montreal shelter, at the intersection of Atwater Avenue and Ste-Catherine Street, to help clean up the mess left by the storm. The basement floor is covered in sewage.

"The challenge for us is we spend over $10,000 a week on food," said the shelter's executive director, David Chapman. With almost a metre of water in the walk-in fridge "most things in there are now for the garbage."

He says this is the shelter's latest setback in helping people in need after they dealt with flooding just barely two weeks ago. According to him, it's a yearly occurrence though never he's never seen it as bad as this year.

Chapman says he tried getting help around this time last year after the shelter was flooded by about 30 centimetres of water. 

"Unfortunately it's a much more complicated problem," he said. "When the sewers back up, there's not much you can do."

He's asking people to make donations to replace items lost to the flood to the shelter — or lend a hand in the cleanup effort. 

According to an intervention worker at the shelter, Vicki MacDonald, Resilience Montreal needs tents, sleeping bags, shoes, men's clothing and food.

"Anytime that it rains and the city can't handle the flooding, it comes here," she said. 

In a statement, the city of Montreal said it will put in place green infrastructure like curb extensions and tree pits that will act as an urban drainage system to mitigate the effects of intense rain which the city says will become increasingly frequent due to climate change.

The city also says it has reached out to Resilience Montreal and offered to support the organization. 

As for residents affected by the flooding, like Wilson, the city says they can contact 311 to learn about what resources are available to them. 

Wilson says he wishes the city had levelled his street better to avoid it becoming a huge water slide for rainwater dooming his one-bedroom apartment. He hopes they will consider installing bigger water pipes in the future. 

He'll spend the next week looking for places to stay. 

"At least my cat's safe," he said.