Boyle Street flood leaves needy scrambling for services

It's been a hectic 24 hours forBoyle Street Community Services director Ian Mathieson.

Mathieson's phone has been ringing off the hook since broken water line Thursday floodedthe downtown drop-in centre.

"Where we're at right now, it looks like the crews will be working through the weekend,"he said.

"It looks like we'll be able to open the upper part of our building by Tuesday.

"The lower part is unlikely to be opened and that's because they have to cut through drywall and confirm damage and get stuff out of there and that'll have an impact on our services indefinitely."

According to the City of Edmonton a PCL crew was working near the arena when it hit a water line. Thebreak caused a flood in the building located at10116 105th Avenue and the entire building had to be shutdown.

Today, the sound of industrial vacuumsfilled the air as crews carried on with the massive clean up.

Usually teeming with people, the sidewalk out front Friday wasempty.

The few people who showedup expressed disappointment at newsthe centre is closed and thatsome services won't be available when centrere-opensnext week.

"It inconveniences a lot of peopleespecially those that are cold, homeless, andneedy," said Monica Johnston, who uses the family resources office atthe centre to get in touch with her daughter.

Now she says she'll have to make some differentarrangements.

Mathieson says closing the centreright before the long weekend is a major blow.

"This is their community centre and it's a place to warm up and it hasgotten cold, it'll be cold this weekend," he said.

Clients will have to go five days without access to services, he said.

"They can't access housing services if they need,mental health services, youth drop-in, our drop-in, warm lunch, streetworks, needle exchange, all of those things are now not there.

"Fortunately the Bissell's (Centre) open today and people can go there, but you know it puts a big burden on their staff and their resources and it means it's going to be crowded over there, which is hard for people."

Several blocks east at10527 96 Street, the Bissell Centrewas full as regulars were joined beBoyle Street clients.

"We've definitely had a bit of a different crowd today, " said drop-in centre managerCraig Lidstone.

"We've actually also been fortunate enough to see some of the staff from Boyle Street to come over on their free time and help out, it's been great to have them cover over and support us."

That givesMathieson and his crew time tocontinue the clean up andmakesure Sunday's Thanksgiving dinner goes ahead as planned.

Boyle Street has moved the dinner to the nearby Boyle Street Plaza at 9538-103AAve.

"We have to close our fridge and our kitchen, and so we're just trying to find a place for our food this weekend to store it. Hopefully that can happen," Mathiesonsaid.

"It'll be from 12 to three at the Boyle Street Plaza and we're hoping our community can find out.

"We've got signs up in the front of the building and we've got staff over at Bissell letting people know that it's moving over there.I think we'll be covered on that front, but it'll be a bit of a disruption for sure.

The centre is expecting to feed as many as 1,000 people on Sunday.

"Our community's resilient they're strong, and our staff arethe same and they'll work really hard to make sure thateverybody gets a good meal on Sunday," Mathieson said.