The city of Montreal's public security commission will hold a public session to go over what went wrong during last spring's flooding and how to do things better if it happens again.
The city said it will follow up closely on a report presented this morning by its civil security department on the flooding that cost the city nearly $10M and affected over 400 homes and 1100 residents. Forty-three Montreal families are still living in hotels.
Civil security representatives say they can't think about managing floods in the future with only dams, one of the many things they have to rethink including: updating equipment and inventory lists to deal with flooding; improving the 311 information line that shut down for a few hours during peak flooding period; and correcting outdated flood maps. There are 46 recommendations in the report that describes a city that was ill-prepared for the flooding.
Mayor Valérie Plante even suggested they could use the concrete dividers left over from the now-cancelled Formula E race.
"Since we have (concrete) barriers in stock," said Plante, adding that while they laugh about it, it's true.
Plante said they have to be realistic: while they hope it doesn't happen again, there are chances it will because after all, Montreal is an island.