As June 29 approaches, many people have in mind the violent storm that hit Edmundston and its surrounding areas on the same date last year. For many people, it is an evening that they will remember for a long time.
This is particularly the case of the mayor of Edmundston, Eric Marquis, who believes that this is the most significant moment of his mandate so far. He says he was on vacation at Baker Lake when he learned of the situation.
“What’s weird is that it wasn’t raining at Baker Lake. We could hear a little thunder, but nothing more. I got messages from my sister and my parents who told me that it was raining a lot. My first reaction was to look at the weather apps to see what was happening and I saw something quite striking on the radars. Almost at the same time, my general manager contacted me to tell me that problematic situations were starting to arise in the municipality,” he says.
In Edmundston, it is estimated that nearly 150 millimeters of rain accumulated over a period of approximately two hours.
Deciding to end his vacation, the mayor of Edmundston returned to the city to survey the damage and work with the municipal administration to ensure that no one was in danger.
“It worried us, because we learned in the evening that the road to Haut-Madawaska (Route 120) was cut. It was the same thing for Rivière-à-la-Truite Road. There were a lot of decisions that had to be made at that time.”
There have been landslides along Route 120, forcing authorities to close part of the road to traffic. A residence along the same road even had to be moved due to its unsafe location.
The rain caused flooding and backflows in Saint-Jacques for more than 250 residents.
David Couturier was one of those affected by backflows in his basement. According to him, this situation caused total disarray within his family.
“My partner and I felt extremely vulnerable because we didn’t imagine that this was something that could happen to us.”
In addition to the damage caused by the rain, Mr. Couturier also deplored the lack of support from the City of Edmundston in the aftermath of the disaster.
“Even 24 hours later, the Municipality has not decreed a mini local emergency measure with teams to help us navigate all this and give us the steps to follow. People had to fend for themselves (…) When you’re panicked, it’s hard to think about everything. Not everyone can handle that.”
For his part, Mayor Marquis said he appreciated the response from municipal employees who decided to leave their long weekend aside to return to work.
“No matter the sector, employees came in to help in the field. They knew they had to act quickly. We also had good collaboration from the province, such as, for example, the Ministry of Public Security who called us to find out if we needed their agents.”
Although he does not yet have a precise idea of the scale of the costs related to the storm of June 29, 2023, he estimates that it could amount to at least $10 million.
“When we look at the damage in the Verret section, on Route 120, it becomes difficult to assess the total cost of the damage, because we don’t know when the repair work will be done and what it will cost the New Brunswick government.”
“We hope that our federal and provincial governments will be there to help us put permanent measures in place to resolve the situation.”
This natural disaster made the mayor of Edmundston realize that the municipality and the North-West region were not immune to climate change and large-scale weather events.
“We said for a long time that we were at home in Edmundston. We had not experienced major events as we saw in other municipalities,” mentioned Eric Marquis who estimates that the last disaster of this kind dates back to 2008, when significant floods hit the region of Madawaska.
In this context, the torrential rains of June 29, 2023 prompted the City of Edmundston to better prepare to face the unleashing of Mother Nature in the future.
“In the past, we may have done things that we took for granted, because it had never caused a problem. We are realizing that with climate change, we are going to have new challenges and that will require changes, both on the part of the Municipality and on the part of citizens.”
This event notably forced the City of Edmundston to undertake a process of reviewing its hydraulic network, mainly in the Saint-Jacques sector which was affected by water infiltration and sewer backups.
“After Saint-Jacques, we will have to ask the same questions for the rest of the municipality.”
“The community and collective effort will have to become a regional effort, because we have waterways in the municipality, but they sometimes leave from elsewhere. So, certain decisions in other places can create challenges in Edmundston.”
The creation of a committee made up of stakeholders from the City of Edmundston and citizens of Saint-Jacques is also one of the things that saw the light of day following the storm of June 29.
Two studies have been commissioned. The first, developed by the firm Roy consultants, aims to take stock of the sanitary and storm sewer system, as well as the water table, in the Saint-Jacques district.
The second, carried out by the Englobe firm, looked at the Trout River which crosses Saint-Jacques. According to Eric Marquis, it will be used to understand what are the best practices to mitigate the impact of rain when it increases the volume of water in this river.
In both cases, the results are awaited. They should be revealed in the coming weeks.
“We’re still waiting for the answer, even a year later. We understand that it’s a big project, maybe bigger than we expected (…) We’re not happy that it’s taking so long, but we don’t have much control over that. At the end of the day, we want to have the right solutions,” explained David Couturier, who nevertheless took the time to highlight the quick solutions that the City of Edmundston wants to implement while waiting for the studies to be completed.
No matter what has been accomplished over the past year, the fateful date of June 29, 2024, raises a certain apprehension according to Mayor Marquis. It resurfaces in discussions on an almost weekly basis, whether at City Hall or during meetings with citizens.
“Recently, we had an alert from Environment Canada of major precipitation. We immediately brought in employees to install a pump system. Fortunately, we didn’t need to use them, but it’s part of our learning.”
“When we look at the weather and see warnings of heavy rain, we talk to each other quite a bit in our internal network. It’s not something we’re going to forget tomorrow morning.”
For his part, David Couturier admits that, each time there is a warning or a period of heavy rain, visits to the basement are more frequent.
“Of course we don’t go too far and we stay at home. We got there. It created a situation that affected our morale. We think about it more often.”
