After more than six decades living on Kingston Mills Road, Viola Belanger says she’s worried sick about flooding not only inside of her home, but outside as well.
Belanger lives just steps away from the lock station. It was closed off for nine months to repair two bridges and a road damaged by spring flooding.
“This was a beautiful place to live. But I’m getting afraid for it now,” admits Belanger.
READ MORE: Heavy rain causes flooding of many Kingston properties
On her property is on a small creek. When heavy rain comes it triples in size.
There is a culvert but she’s concerned the softened gravel surrounding it will soon cave in and cause a tragic accident.
“We’re afraid a car is going to break through it and someone is going to be hurt badly. I’m just terrified. There’s been so many trucks over it this summer. It’s going to happen,” said Belanger.
Belanger’s son Rusty says the work done near the lock station wasn’t enough. He believes the road may face flood erosion, yet again.
“They should have put in a bigger culvert is basically what they should have done. Because the water is all getting backed up. All the way to our place, where it’s coming from,” said Rusty.
Belanger’s neighbour, Ron Wong, has concerns of his own.
READ MORE: Heavy rain in the Kingston area causes plenty of flooding problems
Some of his backyard borders land owned by Parks Canada. Part of his backyard has been swamped by a swollen creek nearby.
“Ideally what would be the best thing would be to trench along the whole creek. It would probably be a distance of about 400 or 500 metres. Dig it deeper. Clean it out,” suggests Wong.
Wong sent photos to Parks Canada but hasn’t heard back yet.
CKWS also reached out to the federal department but they were unavailable to comment on the bridge and road repairs near the lock station or Wong’s washed out backyard.
City officials are also aware of the neighbourhood concerns and promised to assess the area in the next day or so to decide if additional maintenance is required.
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