With most of his backyard — including his swimming pool — sitting under four feet of water, Denis Gingras was surprisingly serene on Tuesday morning.
The Rivière des Prairies rose six inches overnight, coming up against temporary walls set up by the borough of Pierrefonds at the north end of Château-Pierrefonds Ave. Grey temporary walls served as a dike running along the shore, passing right through Gingras’s property. On the river side of the wall, the level had risen to the top of the four-foot fence that surrounds his pool.
“This whole area was backfilled in the 1960s, so the river isn’t in the pool, it’s the pool that is in the river,” Gingras said, standing on his patio with his back to the river. “We’ve been here five generations, so this is typical. It’s a bit higher than normal.”
Gingras had very little water in his home during the historic floods of 2017, as his home is located on slightly higher ground than most of his neighbours.
His neighbour, Lamine Sellah, wasn’t as lucky, as his property is situated on lower ground. Nine years ago, Sellah had to spend about six months away from home after water came up to a height of three feet around his home.
“We had to replace everything: the floors, the walls,” Sellah said.
Sellah hasn’t been sleeping as soundly in recent days. He walked to the shore on Monday night before going to sleep to check the level, and then again on Tuesday at 5 a.m.
He said that although the city appears to have made many efforts to keep water at bay, some water has still found its way around the temporary walls and has started to creep toward his house.
“I’m just a bit concerned because in 2017, the peak happened on May 7. We’re still a long way away from that, so it’s a bit early for the water level to be this high,” he added.
Forecasts have called for water levels to stabilize in the next day or so, but residents know there is another peak to come in the next few weeks.
Water surrounds some of the homes on Île Mercier on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. Dave Sidaway / Montreal Gazette
On Île Mercier, rising levels have forced the city to close the bridge linking their small neighbourhood with Île Bizard, and residents donned hip waders to bring groceries and other provisions across the bridge after parking their cars on higher ground. The trek wasn’t easy, as a strong current in the middle risked sweeping away those less sure footed.
Some vehicles still made the crossing as the city sent several hundred sandbags, delivered on a flatbed truck.
“It’s a relief for us to have some sandbags in reserve in case the water rises even more,” said Pier-Luc Cauchon, a lifelong resident of the island. “They closed the bridge, so it’s a bit of an inconvenience, but everyone is ready and everyone is dry.”
Cauchon was one of the who remained on the island in 2017 when the island faced the threat of a forced evacuation. As residents fended for themselves for about a week, they took to calling him mayor.
Cauchon said this time around, water levels are not worrying yet, but he, too, is keenly aware that nature has the final word.
“There are two peak periods here,” he explained while standing in front of his house. “We’re at the peak of the first melt, and the second melt is still happening because the snow hasn’t yet all melted up north. We hope the levels have time to go down after the (next peak) arrives. We hope it stays cold for a long period until this water can go away.”
He said the level is still far from where it was in 2017, and he expects the levels will stay significantly lower than the experience that spring.
“Where we’re standing, the water came up to about (two feet) and we were riding along here in a boat.”
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