Erie Shore Drive in Chatham is now considered a construction zone

Residents along Erie Shore Drive in Chatham-Kent were packing up their final items over the weekend and moving out of their cabins and homes. 

"A lot of memories made out here, kids being raised out here," Dana Smith said as she and her family moved the final items they were taking out of their cabin. She also left some homemade posters behind on her property. 

"My signs reflect the emotional side of it."

The municipality of Chatham-Kent decided to close the road after they learned there was a 5 to 40 per cent chance the dike protecting the shoreline could fail. They gave property owners nine days to move out of their homes and properties.

"This is 30 years of compiling stuff down into a simple trailer, two trucks and a car," said Smith's brother, Paul Mailloux.

At 12:01 a.m. on Monday, the municipality closed off a portion of the road and it is now considered a construction zone and only authorized people are allowed in.

Private security is posted at each side of the closure and are present around the clock to make sure nobody uses the road. They will also be watching for suspicious activity and for any possible failures in the dike.

"All public access will be denied and anyone caught violating the road closure may be charged accordingly," a notice affixed to one household read. 

Thanks to the volunteers

Volunteers were matched with families to help with packing as well as work on their properties, which they will not be able to tend to while away. 

"We're just reinforcing the break wall everywhere, and just trying to stop the flooding from coming in," said Matt Curran. He was lending his time to help some families stack sand bags around their properties. He said he'll keep it up as long as he can.

"Whenever I'm on my days off or have the free spare time, I'll come down and help friends like Dave," he said. "We made friends out of it."

Smith said she is thankful for all the volunteers that have come out to help.

"Everyone that came and helped, god bless y'all," she said.

Not clear on how long

While council voted to close the road for six to eight weeks — whether or not that becomes a permanent closure isn't clear.

"At this point, we don't know what's going to happen," said Chatham-Kent councillor Mary Clare Latimer.

 "We've asked administration to come back to council with options."

Latimer said they would like to know what the access, if any, will look like for residents to get into the area after the work on the dike is complete. 

"When are we going to rebuild this road? Are we going to be putting in a maintenance corridor? What are we doing about buyouts, if that's even on the table," she said.

While Mailloux would like to return to his property, he hopes that if it becomes inaccessible, there will be compensation.

"We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to build the place — to bring everything in here and within a week [we have to] get everything out," he said.

The council has committed to work with the Erie Shore Drive Property Owners Association on property access and other important issues, said president Terra Cadeau.

"Right now we're coming to the table in good faith and I hope that they are as well," she said.