Residents in a St. Catharines, Ont. neighborhood are facing flooding damage after a series of storms hit the area. Mike Walker reports.
Volunteers from Team Rubicon Canada are lending a hand in basements throughout St. Catharines, Ont., helping homeowners clean up after nearly two months’ worth of rain fell on the city within just a few days, causing severe flooding and sewage issues.
Storms impacted the city on July 27, 28 and Aug. 2, leading to a state of emergency.
“We’re doing what we call a ‘muck out,’” said Jack Profijt, a volunteer and St. Catharines resident who has been spending several days removing carpet and tearing out drywall in the home of an elderly woman. He mentions that the initial weeks following a disaster can be overwhelming, and this effort helps people find a path forward.
“What this does for homeowners is it actually gets them to a point where they can see a beginning, and it puts them in a direction of how to finish.”
Like many volunteers with Rubicon, Profijt is also a veteran, having served 26 years as a reserve with the Canadian Armed Forces. Team Rubicon was created to serve two purposes: assisting communities in need while providing veterans and other first responders an opportunity to continue serving after leaving their formal roles.
Ontario floods A series of heavy rains have led to widespread floods in southern Ontario. (Supplied images)
“It’s hard to know where to fit sometimes,” he shared. “What teamwork does for me is it allows me to get back to something that was missing. I have the camaraderie, I have people with common experiences and it lets me commit and keep serving Canada.”
Trevor Young, another volunteer and member of Team Rubicon’s board, emphasizes that sense of purpose is key for the organization. “One of the things you miss most when you hang up your uniform is that sense of purpose and contributing to the community,” he noted. “And so that dual mission is one thing that makes us unique.”
Team Rubicon Canada is currently assisting about 30 homeowners, with more waiting for help. The organization has set up its base at the local high school, where they’ve turned the gym into a staging area while cots fill the library for volunteers’ rest.
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“The need that we’re seeing is sometimes multigenerational,” stated Jennifer Goodfellow, who manages volunteers for Team Rubicon Canada. “Generational homes where they can no longer house everyone in their basements anymore; they’re all living together on one floor now. The need is great so it’s really good to be here.”
Three weeks post-flooding disaster, evidence remains visible across the north end of St. Catharines as piles of debris sit at curbsides awaiting garbage collection.
“It’s been really hard to see how some folks’ entire lives are sitting at their driveways,” mentioned St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe, who is now urging provincial and federal governments for more assistance towards municipalities struggling with outdated infrastructure.
“In an era where we’re talking about nation-building projects, I would argue that fixing water systems-wastewater and stormwater-across municipalities should be prioritized because it’s impacting every single municipality.”
How to handle flooding damage in your basement Record rainfall this year has left some people with soggy basements. Professional organizer Christa Jones gives tips on mitigating the damage.
Both St. Catharines and Niagara regional governments reported inspections showed there were no blockages or weaknesses in infrastructure responsible for extensive flooding; simply too much water overwhelmed the system.
Siscoe explained that St. Catharines isn’t alone in facing these challenges; rather it’s just one recent example affected by extreme weather events lately observed across many areas. He stated aging infrastructure needs upgrades which are costly but essential for preventing future flooding occurrences.
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