Marina Petrovic and her daughter Sophie removed all items from the first floor of their Queensline Drive home in Ottawa on Tuesday, after flooding on July 1 caused close to five feet of water and sewage to enter their house and garage, destroying everything. Petrovic and her neighbours have now endured two tornadoes and a massive flood over the last decade.
Community Bonds Through Repeated Disasters
If extreme weather brings out any positives, Marina Petrovic says it frequently brings her neighbourhood together. She referred to it as a sort of trauma bonding in the Graham Park community, located southeast of Bayshore.
“In every big disaster, we’re like, ‘All right, well, whose freezer are we eating out of today?’” she said. “And we’d pull out the barbecues … knowing it could be days and days we’d be without power.”
When the storm clouds roll in, the Nepean-area community is certainly no stranger to bracing for impact and expecting the worst. Over the last decade, it has borne the brunt of two tornadoes ripping through surrounding areas, with wind downing large trees and leaving residents without power for days on end.
July 1 Storm Brings Devastating Flooding
Now, Petrovic, her partner Francis Roy-Moreau, and their 10- and 13-year-old daughters are among the thousands of Ottawa residents left picking up the pieces of a flooded home after the massive July 1 rainstorm.
“We’ve checked all the natural disaster boxes,” said Petrovic while sitting in the backyard, surrounded by stacked plastic storage bins which she said couldn’t do enough to save family mementos from five feet of flooding. “I feel like, every couple of years, we’re bracing for what’s going to happen next.”
The family had just finished making ice cream sandwiches ahead of a Canada Day barbecue when the storm clouds rolled in, deciding to hold off until the storm passed. Within half an hour of the downpour starting, Petrovic said water was streaming down their sloped driveway and into the garage and ground floor of their house. Within an hour of downpour rain, water levels had risen to five feet in their house, the electrical panel crackling as it met the water. By 6 p.m., Petrovic remembers standing on the street with her neighbours, unsure of what to do or even where to begin.
Widespread Damage on Queensline Drive
Petrovic was far from the only one on her street who was a victim of flooding. On Tuesday afternoon, many Queensline Drive residents had discarded the contents of their homes, including furniture, flooring, drywall and clothing, onto their front lawns. Garbage trucks had started to make the rounds, as crews collected whatever they could from the massive piles lining the street.
“We’ll come back for the rest,” one garbage truck worker promised a resident after the crew had made a significant dent in his pile of belongings, to the point where you could almost see the grass peeking out underneath. As he got back into the truck, across-the-street neighbour Jolene Bard handed him a cold bottle of water to thank him for his work in the blazing 29 C heat, with humidity making it feel more like 35.
After buying their house a little less than a year ago when moving home from Australia, it’s Jolene and Andre Bard’s first experience with a natural disaster in the neighbourhood, though they said they’re well aware of the stories. The community continues to support each other through the recovery process, exemplifying resilience in the face of repeated extreme weather events.
