St. James cleans up after sewer backup floods 50 homes

Looters add insult to injury

First they were flooded, then they were hit by looters who didn’t seem to mind taking household objects ruined by raw sewage.

“I told them it was contaminated,” said resident Mary Addison, who caught a looter going through some of her neighbour’s garbage on his front lawn.

“He told me, ‘Well, you guys don’t want it anymore.’”

Disgusting sludge spewed up into basements on Assiniboine Avenue and Ferry Road, fouling everything it touched after sewers backed up in St. James last week.

“Oh my God, the smell was incredible,” said Agatha Richardson, whose house on Assiniboine Avenue was one of the unlucky 50 to be swamped by sewage after a nasty storm and a City error last Wednesday.

“My grandson came running up out the basement, he was trying not to throw up.”

Richardson said the damage to her basement is extensive.

“I don’t know what it’ll cost us,” she said, adding her son and teenage grandson had already pulled damaged appliances and furniture from her basement. “But everything down there is ruined.”

Richardson said she didn’t lose anything of immense value.

“I know that basement flooding can happen anywhere in Winnipeg so I never kept anything very valuable downstairs, but I still lost a lot and it’s going to be a big hassle.

On Monday, residents were removing belongings and cleaning up, with numerous restoration services trucks parked along the street.

On the corner of Assiniboine Avenue and Ferry Road, residents Kathy and Gordon MacMillan were roasting hot dogs on a barbecue and trying to keep spirits up.

“(Kathy and Gordon) have been wonderful,” said Lorraine Helguson, who had several feet of sewage in her basement. “They’ve opened up their house to people, offering hot showers, doing people’s laundry.”

The MacMillans were one of the few area residents to escape the flooding.

Last Wednesday’s short but severe thunderstorm resulted in a sewer backup after City crews working nearby didn’t open a sewer gate before the storm hit.

Barry MacBride, the City’s director of water and waste, said the closing of the sewer gate was standard procedure to prevent an overflow of sewage in to the Assiniboine River while the crew worked on the nearby Ferry Road wastewater pumping station.

However, he said the gate was not re-opened in time and the sewer, which should have easily handled the sludge, couldn’t. MacBride said the City is investigating the incident.

The City’s response was almost immediate, MacBride said, and as of last Friday most of the homes had been assessed by City crews.

“There were a few homes we couldn’t get into, people may have been away or on vacation, we’ve left notes in their mailbox,” he said, adding they’ll be in for a very unpleasant surprise when they return.

MacBride said the City has taken full responsibility for the backup and that all the damage will be covered under the City’s insurance. He added damage estimates haven’t been completed since every claim will be unique.

St. James-Brooklands Coun. Scott Fielding said he spent Wednesday evening and most of the day Thursday knocking on affected homeowners’ doors to try to answer questions.

Fielding said homeowners are being asked to go to their own insurance companies and then the insurance company should submit the bill to the City for reimbursement after the repairs are completed.

“And if their insurance has a gap, or the insurance doesn’t cover sewer back up, the City claims department will cover the rest. No one is going to be left out or having to pay for this,” said Fielding.

Fielding had a community meeting on Wednesday with residents and City officials to answer further questions.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority was also on hand last week educating homeowners on safe and healthy clean up of their homes, said a spokesperson for the WRHA.

The City is encouraging affected homeowners to call the Water and Waste centre at 986-5858 if they have bulky waste they need picked up.