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Water levels should start falling

There was a glimmer of good news Monday as Ottawa and Gatineau faced historic flooding that forced hundreds of people from their homes and shut down government offices in Gatineau.

Water levels in the Ottawa River have stabilized and should begin to slowly recede in the coming days, according to the agency that monitors the river’s flow.

Michael Sarich, a senior regulation engineer at the Ottawa River Regulation Secretariat, said water levels and flows had remained steady Monday afternoon after the river crested earlier in the day.

“It’s pretty stable. A few centimetres here or there but essentially those same numbers have held all day,” said Sarich. He said residents should expect the water to slowly start receding so long as there isn’t another deluge of rain.

“The forecast is good so we are expecting a couple of days where it is just a few centimetres decline and then it is going to drop off at a faster rate,” said Sarich. “It’s easily probably a week to get back to what we would call serious flooding. It’s easily five to seven days before we get down to an uncomfortable flooding level.”

Sarich said residents should still expect weeks of above normal levels after the river hit historic highs in many locations.

According to Sarich, the latest readings in Gatineau had the river level at 45.18 metres above sea level. For comparison, the average spring peak for the river is 42.95 metres – a difference of 2.23 metres.