A Nepean family is unable to return home and searching for answers weeks after the Canada Day storm sent more than three feet of water rushing through their property. Lydia and Daniel Pion say their backyard, was once a garden oasis until it was turned into a raging river for 20 hours as the nearby Graham Creek rose. “I’ve always wanted a kitchen garden, and Daniel made it happen for me. He spent hours. So much work went into creating this oasis,” said Pion. “We did notice throughout the evening that the water across the street in the inlet was rising but then it became very quickly not fine, and it came over the sidewalk and then onto the road and then over the road onto our property and then into the garden.” The force of the water carried away plants, outdoor furniture, part of the fence and the play structure before entering the basement and destroying nearly everything inside. “It’s finished; it’s wrecked. It went over the height of the washer and dryer and furnace and hot water tank, and the freezer was actually floating,” said Daniel. The Pion’s initially said they were told the damage would not be covered because their policy did not include overland flood protection. Their coverage includes sewer backup and above-ground water but say they were told they weren’t eligible for overland flood coverage because the home is in a high-risk flood area. After CTV News reached out, the Pion’s said TD Insurance acknowledged that water may have entered the home in several ways and agreed to provide the maximum $25,000 available under their sewer-backup coverage. The couple says the payout is a start, but it will not come close to covering the damage or the cost of making the home liveable again. “We just want answers because how are we supposed to move forward and how do we know that this isn’t going to happen again as far as city infrastructure,” said Pion. In a press conference Friday, the city says it continues to review flooding in affected neighbourhoods to determine what caused the damage. “It may be the volume of rainfall, it may be the infrastructure, it may be a combination of the two,” said mayor Mark Sutcliffe. “That’s what we’re going to find out by doing an exhaustive neighborhood, by neighborhood assessment of what happened on July the 1st and what we need to do to better protect residents in the future.” The city is also asking the Ontario government to expand eligibility under the Disaster Recovery Assistance for Ontarians (DRAO) program to include more of the hardest-hit areas. While the Pion’s property falls within an activated area, they say significant outdoor losses, including landscaping and damage to the yard, will not qualify for compensation. “DRAO doesn’t cover any of this landscape. It doesn’t cover the broken fence the broken playground,” said Daniel. “None of that gets covered by anybody whether its insurance or the province. It’s at least $50,000 worth and painstaking work that we did with so much love and care.” For now, the family remains displaced and is doing much of the cleanup and recovery work on their own with the help of family and friends. “It’s grieving. It’s a trauma and it’s difficult for both of us, but that challenge amplifies when you don’t get any sleep,” said Daniel. “We are asking the community to help a little bit. We have friends and family that are helping quite a bit, we’re very grateful for that.”
