WC prepares for unpredictable river

WEST CARLETON – The one thing West Carleton’s riverside community has learned about the Ottawa River since extreme flooding hit the area in 2017, is it’s unpredictable.

Yesterday (April 16), the Mississippi Valley Conservation Authority (MVCA) issued a flood watch for the lower Ottawa River.

At the time, the water level measured 74.93 metres at Chats Lake Generating Station near Fitzroy Harbour according to the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board (ORRPB) compared to 74.76 m Wednesday (April 15). The river started the week (April 13) at 74.5 m. Today, it was measured at 75 m. The ORRPB is forecasting it will reach 75.5 m by April 19.

West Carleton residents have been through this drill before. Record breaking flooding in 2017. Those records were broken in 2019. 2019 records still hold today, but the community was soaked by major flooding in 2021 and 2023, and officials are once again sounding the alarm for the spring of 2026. Officials estimate this year’s flooding could be similar to 2023.

Today (April 17), the weather has been beautiful. Sunny and closing in on 20 degrees Celsius. But that has not been the norm after a week and some of rainy days and more rain expected Saturday (April 18).

That rainy weather is only adding to the problems.

But at the Constance Bay sandbag station at the community centre, one of four sandbag stations in West Carleton, the mood is light.

After a drive around Bayview Drive, West Carleton Online arrived at the sandbag station just after noon. For the hour and a bit, we were there, there always seemed to be about six community members filling bags, chatting with each other and working away in the warm weather – although it wasn’t the same six throughout the hour as different residents dropped by while others departed.

There was no panic, though.

Buckham’s Bay West resident Bethany MacNeill has seen it before. She and her husband bought their house in 2017 when it was already underwater. While the Buckham’s Bay West community, located just across the bay from Constance Bay, is mostly well above the high-water mark on the west side of the bay, there are about three homes much closer to the water level, and the MacNeills are one of them.

While the MacNeills bought their house in May of 2017, they didn’t move in until June of that year. They’ve seen a lot of flooding in those coming on nine years.

“I think we bought in May and it was flooded then,” MacNeill told West Carleton Online about the similarities of the river now and when they moved in in 2017, while filling sandbags. “So, I guess we’re coming up on that timeline. We moved in in June, and all the water was gone at that point. I don’t know. It’s just unpredictable.”

MacNeill says they don’t know if they will be flooded this year, so she’s just making sure they are as prepared as possible.

“If we need them, we really need them, about 3,000 sandbags,” MacNeill said. “I think our retaining wall is about three feet high and the water is just over it, as of yesterday. It has about 100 feet (30.5 m) to go before it hits the house.”

This is MacNeill’s first day sandbagging this year. She says she’s been sandbagging pretty much every second year since 2017 (if not more). She says her family isn’t stressing out about the situation.

“Not too bad,” MacNeill said about her stress levels. “I think we’re prepared. We’ve got some industrial pumps and things, for the runoff water. We’ll have pumps inside, and it’s kind of a well-oiled machine at this point.”

MacNeill expects she’ll be at the sandbagging station over the weekend as well.

 “Yeah, we’ll take our trailer,” she said. “Hopefully, there’s some bags that are full that we can just kind of load them in versus doing this, not that it’s a bad workout. But it’s a  slow process.”

MacNeill says this is now just a part of life living in Buckham’s Bay West, but it took a few years for that to sink in.

“Yeah, we traveled a couple of times before,” MacNeill said. “We were in Portugal one year when it happened, and, I forget, we were somewhere else one year when it happened, and we had a lot of family help out and we had to fly my husband’s father up one year. So, there will be no travel in the spring anymore.”

The MVCA expects the Ottawa River through Constance Bay could rise significantly over the weekend in to next week.

Water levels in the Constance Bay area are currently at the two-year flood event level and are expected to rise by up to 40 to 50 centimetres over the next three to five days,” the MVCA released in a statement today. “Residents can expect flooding in low-lying and flood prone areas. No impacts to roadway access are anticipated.”

The MVCA says water levels are currently expected to remain well below historical flood levels on the main stem of the Ottawa River.

Just above West Carleton, from Arnprior to Britannia, minor flood levels are expected to be reached in flood-prone areas today, with the potential for major flood levels to be exceeded in some locations over the weekend.

Yesterday, West Carleton-March Coun. Clarke Kelly was meeting with the city’s Public Works and Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services departments, and that meeting went in to the evening and continued in to this morning.

“People are getting nervous with what they are seeing and with what is still to come,” Kelly released in a statement today (April 17). “I have asked the city to deploy additional resources to support the community’s efforts to help each other and protect their homes.”

The city has about 6,000 pre-filled sandbags and will be deploying them throughout the community.

“For context we started with 10,000 last year,” Kelly said. “As we do in any flood, we require volunteers to help fill bags to help make distribution and deployment easier.”

If you wish to assist in these efforts, you can sign up here with West Carleton Disaster Relief (WCDR).

“We will also need volunteers with trucks, trailers, or heavy vehicles to help transport and deliver filled sandbags,” Kelly said. “The city will be deploying the sandbag machine which will look a little different than in past years. It will be in use steadily but will be kept at the Kinburn Public Works Yard. Bags will be filled at this location and transported from there. The necessary authorization has been granted to allow staff to replenish sand piles as needed throughout the weekend and you can expect see lots of city trucks in and out of Constance Bay, Dunrobin Shores, Willola Beach and Vydon Acres.”

Members from Ottawa Fire Services (OFS) will be out knocking on doors in some areas to identify concerns and to identify supports that may be needed.

“Stay tuned for further details over the course of the day and weekend,” Kelly said. “Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have questions or require assistance.”

You can contact Kelly’s Ward 5 office by email at Clarke.Kelly@ottawa.ca or by phone at 613-580-2475.

“See you at the sandpile later today,” Kelly said.

There are four sandbag stations currently active, dotted along West Carleton’s riverfront communities known to have been hit hard by spring flooding in the past including at the Constance Bay community centre (262 Len Purcell Dr.), Greenland Road at Armitage Avenue in the Dunrobin Shores area, 128 Moorehead Dr. in Willola Beach and Lighthouse Lane at Loggers Way in Vydon Acres.

The Ottawa River Regulating committee will be reassessing forecast conditions and providing hydrological condition updates on its website daily at www.ottawariver.ca/forecasts/. 

To view current flood warnings across Ontario, visit: www.ontario.ca/page/floods

Daily water levels and flows are available on the MVCA website at https://www.mvc.on.ca/water-levels.