The City of Châteauguay declared a state of emergency on Thursday following heavy freezing rain the day before which left no less than 16,000 homes without electricity. The basement of at least 200 houses would be flooded and there are fears for 10,000 others while half of the pumping stations are no longer supplied by the electricity network.
“It is not decreasing and it is increasing and it is very worrying”, worries the mayor of the city, Éric Allard, in an interview.
The Châteauguay network would no longer supply while 20 of the municipality’s 44 or so pumping stations are no longer powered by the electricity network, but by generators.
The City has received at least 200 calls from citizens whose basements are currently flooded, while approximately 10,000 could also suffer the same fate. “It’s very, very worrying,” said Mayor Allard.
” River [Châteauguay] is very high since yesterday. It is currently under control and we are constantly monitoring it since it increases the level of risk, but what worries us at the moment is our sewer system, ”he explains.
Thanks to the state of emergency, the City will be able to spend more money than usual, and this, in order to order new generators and additional portable pumps in order to relieve its sewer network and supply emergency power to its pumping stations.
“It will be quite expensive, but we must be able to make these expenses quickly. This is why we declared a state of emergency,” said Éric Allard.
More details to come.