'Don't take that. It's contaminated,' post-storm scavengers warned
People whose Ottawa homes flooded during last week's intense Canada Day storm are dealing with cleanup, insurance headaches — and strangers making off with discarded but contaminated possessions put out to the curb.
Molly McGoldrick-Larsen lives on a street in Bells Corners. She says she's spotted people taking luggage, guitar cases and other items.
"Some of it was plastic stuff and they were intending to clean it, but nonetheless ... they have to put it in their car, so the contamination is going [in there] before they get to clean it," she said.
In the same neighbourhood on Tuesday, Chris Bell was helping out a friend with her cleanup efforts.
They, too, have seen scavengers rummaging through people's belongings, he said with disappointment.
"We just saw some people coming along with trailers and picking metal up and stuff that they think they can reuse. But it's all contaminated stuff because of the backup of the sewer system," Bell said.
"I've scared a few people off and just tell them, 'Don't take that. It's contaminated. You can't reuse anything porous,'" he added. "But no, they still want to take stuff."
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McGoldrick-Larsen says she's warned strangers off too and notes that for some of her neighbours, parting with their possessions has not been easy.
“You really need to look beyond the pile of garbage and think about what that would mean to you if you were having to empty the contents of your basement...." she said. "These are people's lives you’re looking at."
Potential health concerns
Paiman Jalali works for a Toronto-based renovation company that has been helping clean out houses and clear out debris.
He says that even if sewer water doesn’t touch the items, there is “all kinds of bacteria” that can pose risks.
“You got to make sure you have all your safety gear on if you were to do that, but I don’t recommend it anyway because the dangers outweigh the positives,” he said.
Employees with Miller Waste Systems, a company hired by the City of Ottawa to handle waste and recycling pickup, collect discarded materials left out by people whose homes were flooded in last week's storm. (Cassandra Bellefeuille/CBC)
The City of Ottawa has dispatched garbage trucks to make extra trips to collect storm-damaged materials from homeowner's curbs.
Again on Tuesday, though, the city asked people to be patient.
"Given the significant volume of debris generated by approximately 4,800 affected homes, collection will take time," the city said in a memo to city councillors.
Residents are asked not to submit a service request if storm-related waste is not collected on their scheduled collection day, "as crews will continue making multiple passes through affected neighbourhoods until collection is complete," the city added.
People can also discard eligible materials at the Trail Waste Facility for free.
This article, written by Cassandra Bellefeuille, was originally published for CBC News. Header image courtesy of CBC News.