Nearly a quarter of Windsor flood damage happened in Riverside

City staff had to set-up extra chairs for people as hundreds gathered on Thursday to hear an update on Windsor's flood damage from city officials. 

Mayor Drew Dilkens addressed the crowd of 340 people during a presentation at the ward 6 meeting. He told residents that 1,500 homes were flooded in their neighbourhood - accounting for 24 per cent of the damage caused by flooding in Windsor. 

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"There's no sewer system in North America that could handle that rainfall," said Dilkens, after presenting a list of past and current projects the city has approved to mitigate flood risk.

Several residents slammed Ontario's Disaster Relief Assistance Program and deemed it as inaccessible. 

"This is not the world's greatest program," Dilkens agreed.

More transparency

During Thursday's presentation, the mayor outlined a sewer plan that was announced a week following the city's floods. 

City council will receive a report on Monday requested by Dilkens looking at increasing the Basement Flooding Protection Subsidy program from an 80 per cent subsidy to 100 per cent.

Lou Ferrante, who's a Ward 6 resident, said he needed more clarity over funding. He said that Dilkens explained the subsidy program is capped at $2,800.

"That is very ambiguous and I think it's not fair," said Ferrante, who has had estimates from plumbers come in as low as $3,500 to as high as $10,000. 

The information is available on the City of Windsor website and inside information packages — but the cap hasn't been mentioned during presentations in the first two ward meetings.

Flooded Again

"I just kind of really want to know what the next step is," said Tim Eansor, who's also a Ward 6 resident, after hearing the presentation.

Eansor's basement flooded in 2016. 

"The last time I heard the mayor say that this flood will probably never, ever happen again," he said. "It's happened again."

A total of 1,500 basements took on water in Ward 6 this year, including Eansor's home — which was renovated with flooding protections, including a backflow valve.

Eansor said he's worried about what might happen if he tries to sell his home. 

"If I ever want to sell that house, who is going to buy it?" said Eansor. "Nobody wants to buy that house. You can take $40 - $50,000 off that house."

Face-to-face

Both Ferrante and Eansor spoke with Ward 6 councillor Jo-Anne Gignac during break out sessions. 

"People are upset - I'm upset and the mayor's upset," said Gignac. "But the idea of this evening was to get people connected with the experts."

"I'm tired of mopping my basement. I've been flooded every time we've had a storm," said Gignac, who told reporters that she has the backflow valve installed. 

She also gave residents an update on the garbage collection.

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"People are very upset about it," said Gignac. "City wide by (Friday) afternoon we'll have done the first complete circuit, and so they will be coming back to Riverside to start the second circuit to remove the debris."

Gignac encouraged residents to report flooding to the city to make sure that the proper amount of money flows into ward projects to ensure everything is done to reduce the risk of flooding. 

"To be perfectly honest with you, I don't think there's a silver bullet here," said Gignac. "It's going to be a combination of things."