As Ottawa faces more wild weather this week, many homeowners are still cleaning up from the Canada Day storm that occurred six weeks ago. More than 6,000 basements flooded in Ottawa on July 1 and contractors have been going full tilt to help residents rebuild. On Thursday, C&C Drywall was on site at an Ottawa home in the west-end to fix a basement that was completely flooded during the July 1 extreme weather event. The home’s power was knocked out during Wednesday’s intense storm. “Today they are out of power because of the storm last night that hit Ottawa,” said Joe Cambal, who owns C&C Drywall in Ottawa. Now, the finished basement has been brought down to its bones for the major project as Cambal still fields calls from other homeowners. “I would say we got over one hundred phone calls right now and we are only able to respond to about 25 per cent of that so far,” said Cambal. “We are booking until September or October right now.” CTV News followed Cambal along to three homes where all of the finished basements flooded six weeks ago. “We have never experienced floods like this on a mass scale,” said Cambal. “Everyone is getting hit left, right and centre so I think this is the third or fourth storm since I think the Canada Day flood.” It’s hard to predict how long the work will take as home owners like Greg Martin follow all the proper steps through insurance. “We are nowhere even close to getting back to normal so its going to take time, but it’s out of our hands,” said Martin. The cost for Martin is still being determined. “Certainly, the cost is going to exceed the amount covered by insurance, so we are certainly going to be out of pocket for an amount that we don’t know at this point,” said Martin. As Cambal walks through multiple job sites a day, his work is far from done. “People are still looking for contractors and I think there’s more than enough to keep us going until possibly Christmas,” he said. Cambal advises homeowners to always hire certified contractors that have proper insurance and to make sure that no short cuts are taken as that can cause more damage in the long run.
