Pierrefonds couple bid adieu to flood-condemned home of 27 years
Des Maçons Street residents say they felt abandoned by borough and city during floods
It hit Céline Hardy when she saw her swing crash to the ground as an excavator tore through her little house on Des Maçons Street in Pierrefonds.
"I felt a big pinch in my heart," Hardy said.
"We thought we'd finish our lives here"- Céline Hardy
She and her husband Serge Kelly watched Friday as their home of three decades in Pierrefonds was one of the first to be demolished of those condemned by last spring's floods.
- For complete coverage of the 2017 floods in Quebec
- One-on-one government meetings with Pierrefonds flood victims produce mixed feelings
"It's our life, our memories — the good ones and the less good ones — turning to dust," Hardy said, standing beside Kelly. The heavy machinery behind them ripped through a pile of boards that used to constitute 5366 Des Maçons.
Though Hardy said she'd come to terms with the loss, Kelly admitted the demolition was especially hard to watch for him.
"Twenty-seven years of work, gone in two hours," he said.
Each piece of wood had meaning
Hardy nodded. She said her husband had worked away at the house throughout the years, that each fallen board had meaning.
"We thought we'd finish our lives here," she added.
While the house is one of the first to go, it was also one of the first to be inundated, sitting on a piece of land Hardy characterized as "a little hole," slightly below water level.
Hardy and Kelly say they found out in July their house would have to be torn down, but figured as much well before that.
An engineer who came by to inspect the house after the floods had told them the structure would have to go.
Residents condemn how city, borough dealt with flood
The couple says they're getting a fair amount from the provincial government for the loss of their home, but condemn the City of Montreal and the borough of Pierrefonds for how they dealt with the floods as they were happening.
Calls for help in the form of sandbags and city workers never came, they said.
Their neighbour and former city councillor René LeBlanc said the block had to band together in response to the lack of aid from the municipalities.
A group of them would go door to door to check on neighbours. They found one home's electricity hadn't been disconnected and stopped some homeowners from demolishing a wall that could have made the house dangerous.
"The street was under water, completely under water, not just for a few days, for a few weeks," LeBlanc said.
He said he spoke to a city engineer after the floods and was told "Your street was pretty much a lost cause. We had to go elsewhere where we could help."
"Well, I disagree with that," LeBlanc says. "There was a lot to do here; the stress, the trauma, the emotion … There are still families on this street, five months later, that are living in hotels."
A new chapter
As for Hardy and Kelly, LeBlanc says he could tell it was a tough day, but "they're now building a new chapter in their lives."
The couple were headed for a visit to what they hoped would become their new home in Les Coteaux, across from Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Friday afternoon, after they'd said goodbye to their old one.
with files from Navneet Pall