Nearly one million sand bags have been filled to date by volunteers working tirelessly throughout our community.
They are school children, sports team, retired couples; even folks booking time off work to help their neighbours in need. In Cumberland, hundreds of people have heeded the call for help, filling bags at the Heritage Village Museum.
The days are beginning to blur a bit for Victoria Ozimkowski.
“I’ve been out here since last Friday,” she says, 11 days straight for hours a day.
“I’m kind of unemployed at the moment and am in the process of trying to join the Ottawa Police,” Ozimkowski says, “I have down time which means I can be here all day.”
Ozimkowski has been shoveling sand or tying them, filling or tossing them; even with an injury to her hand.
“We had an overexcited volunteer on Saturday who turned around swinging his sand bag and it caught me square in the wrist,” she says, her hand bandaged up, “But there are still a lot of people who need our help that once their volunteer hours are over, they're still trying to sand bag. They still need people’s help; they don't get to shut of the worry.”
A couple hundred more volunteers have joined her in Cumberland to sandbag including two busloads of students from Cairine Wilson Secondary School.
“I’m hre today because I want to help with flood relief,” says Grade 10 student Rowen Bellows.
Bruce O’Neill and his wife Mary are retired, spending their days on the sand bagging line.
“We were on Morin Street,” says Bruce O’Neill, “It's just so devastating down there. It's motivating to help because it's so bad down there.”
Their herculean efforts have produced 7-thousand sand bags in just 3 hours in an assembly line of sorts
That assembly line has become a life-line for folks like Maggie Bourbonnais whose house is on Morin Street, completed surrounded by water except for the east side of her property.
“Wow, this community, the whole community can come together at a time of crisis like this,” she says.
According to councilor Stephen Blais, five houses in Cumberland have been evacuated. And now there is a concern that houses not impacted in 2017 are at risk.
“The army has been out to help sand bag some homes that we never thought would need them,” he says.
And so back on the sand bagging line, Victoria is pacing herself, knowing she may be out here for a while yet.
“As long as I’m able to be here,” she says, as she tosses another sand bag on the ever-growing pile, “I will be here doing what I can.”
