Garry Johnston is frustrated.
He is one of the tenants who reside in a 10-unit apartment building on Main Street in Mattawa.
The Mattawa carpenter and sculptor was rushed out of his home on May 6 when water was flowing into the basement of the apartment building.
“All I was allowed to do was grab my budgies, my dog and a couple of cages and I was not given any time to grab anything, personal items, nothing,” said Johnston.
See related: Mattawa declares state of emergency
Since then, Johnston has stayed for free at the Mattawa River Lodge Resort, even helping out doing some maintenance and some painting as a way to say thank you to the owners.
That’s all he can do and now it’s costing him contract work.
“All my carpentry tools are in the apartment so I have lost potential work over this,” he said.
“I am ready to contemplate breaking into my own apartment to get my stuff.”
Marissa McKellar’s family has been displaced too. She was staying at the Mattawa River Lodge Resort up until Tuesday night when she relocated to the Valois in Mattawa.
“We have the clothes on our backs and my husband got stuff when he was not supposed to, to get stuff, because we wanted to get some memorable stuff that we did have but our big items, we are not going to be able to get, it sounds like.”
If and when they can return is still a question no one seems to have answers to.
“There is no contact from our landlord, which has been really hard,” said McKellar, who has a four-year-old son.
“We have contacted him and not even a message back to make sure we are okay, nothing.”
McKellar says the Red Cross is directing them to North Bay to find a new home there. However, her son Liam, is enrolled in kindergarten in Mattawa next fall and her husband Andrew works at Columbia Forest Products in Rutherglen.
Grant O’Neil, is the apartment property manager, and even with that title, he says he has been locked out since the evacuation on May 6.
“It might be a while before you are back in there, the fire marshall told me,” said O’Neill.
“I’ve been telling the tenants to get ahold of town hall, they will fill them in, but they don’t even know. The water has not gone down much, the basement is still full. I cannot even get into my office to get my own paperwork.”
Johnston was hoping to meet with Mayor Dean Backer either later today or on Thursday. He is just amazed at how difficult it has become to find out what is happening in this flooded town.
“We have had no reliable information even up to today,” said Johnston.
“We don’t know where we are going, or what is happening.”
O”Neil can't give much information either. He has no idea when anyone will be able to return to the apartment.
“I’d love to get in there myself,” he said.
“I don’t think there is anything wrong with the building. I think the engineers will need to inspect it once the water levels go down in the building.”
Just one of the many ongoing struggles for Mattawa residents this month.
