Residents of Pierrefonds continue to deal with aftermath of massive storm

It's been four days since the torrential rains hit Montreal, and many towns are still coping with the aftermath of the flooding.  

Some residents on Paul-Pouliot Street in the Pierrefonds borough were forced to push their cars out of their garages and onto tow trucks. Many of them are total losses after being completely submerged in flood water. 

"Both cars are scrap, both motorcycles, the whole home theatre room," resident Shereef Demian said.

Residents recounted that water poured over a retaining wall and filled multiple basements with over five feet of water.

"I felt like we were in the Titanic. We had classical music going on upstairs, and we're watching everything flood and things floating downstairs," Demian said.

The borough added 12 extra garbage trucks to help with the cleanup.

Alain Kozah, another resident, said he lost family photos, including of his mother, who passed away.

"The feeling of just standing on the corner and watching everything and being helpless and paralyzed and not being able to save anything is the worst feeling anybody can ever have," Kozah said in an interview.

Residents of Pierrefonds blame the City of Montreal because they say a nearby condo development and bad drainage from a snow dump funnels water into their backyards.

"That was previously addressed to the city. They came, and they put a bit of gravel, but again, the slope is negative. So, it comes towards us, and it doesn't help," said Nathalie Brunelle, another community member.  

Borough Mayor Jim Beis noted that with the record rainfall, infrastructure that worked before couldn't handle it.

"We need to look at the future and say, with climate change being what it is, what will be the building standards that we'll have to put in place," Beis said.

Furthermore, the mayor said he is frustrated with the lack of information from the city.

"311 is an absolute joke. It's an absolute joke because when you have a crisis like this, and you have people that are waiting three and four hours just to reach an agent and then when they do, they're not told the information," he explained.

 In a press conference on Tuesday, the Mayor of Montreal, Valerie Plante, said she would look into the situation.

"311 has always been the entry point so if [someone at] 311 say they should be sent to the boroughs well to me that is not the right answer. 311 is the open door, it's the entrance to the city of Montreal. Maybe in some cases it was specific questions related to something… it's hard for me say for every specific case. 311 is connected to all the boroughs," Plante said.