SAINT-PAUL-DE-L'ILE-AUX-NOIX - Heavy rain is predicted to fall across southern Quebec, the Eastern Townships, and the Richelieu Valley overnight, extending the misery and further testing the will of flood victims.

Up to 50 mm of rain is forecast to fall by Friday morning, and it will be accompanied by moderately strong winds of 20 km/h, along with gusts up to 40 km/h. However, the wind is expected to be blowing from the northeast, which should ease the rush of water that was being blown from Lake Champlain to the south into the Richelieu River.

Robin Messier is afraid the effort of saving his house is growing too large.

"Maybe I'm going to have to leave too. And I've been working 20-30 years to have that house," said Messier.

Similar feelings of exasperation are being heard across the region, including St-Paul-de-l'Ile-aux-Noix, one of the hardest hit communities in the area.

Compounding those feelings of frustration are the increasingly unsanitary conditions in the area.

Large carp have taken to swimming up to people's doorsteps, and some of them have died there. The stench from the decay is already starting to waft up from the waters, and as they recede, it should only get worse.

"It's going to be hell here when it gets warm," one resident told CTV Montreal's Rob Lurie.

On top of that, all the standing water everywhere has made mosquitoes a real nuisance, one that can become a real risk to public health.

And amid all that squalor, people are still scrambling to sandbag their homes in anticipation of another rise in water levels.

"My husband is completely discouraged," says resident Manon Boudreault. "Thankfully the army is here, because we can't do anymore."

Except the army may not be there much longer.

Federal Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the Canadian Forces will stay in the Richelieu Valley for the weekend, but after that they are likely to return to their bases.

MacKay inspected some of the 3,000 homes flooded from the northern shore of Lake Champlain and all along the Richelieu river on Wednesday.

Hundreds of soldiers have been working in the region for weeks, but the federal government says they are not going to be around to help clean up when the flood waters finally retreat.

"We are here, just as we are in Manitoba, just as we were during the ice storm, during the urgent period," said MacKay.

However, municipal officials would like to have the strong arms and backs of soldiers around for much longer.

"We know that the soldiers are in good shape. They train regularly, and we can put that training into good work that can be done for us," said Gerard Dutil, the mayor of Saint-Paul-de-l'Ile-aux-Noix.

Messier says cleaning up sandbags and water damage will be just as gruelling.

"For some old people it's going to be hard, because it's quite heavy those bags, and like I said, we're exhausted," Messier said.

In the absence of the military, the communities of the Richelieu Valley will once again lean largely on the work of volunteers who have been lending a hand for a month.

In St-Paul, a car dealership serves as a makeshift dispatch office, with calls for help coming in, and volunteers like Pierre Beland heading out to do what he can.

"Just to have someone come there and discuss with them and try to repair things they are so happy," Beland explains.

That happiness will be harder to come by with the heavy rains in the forecast over the weekend.

After the overnight rains expected to fall by Friday morning, another 10-15 mm of rain is forecast for Friday night with showers forecast for Saturday.

"It's depressing," flood victim Annick Gagnon said. "We're missing work, we're losing money. Everyone else is enjoying spring, but not us."