No relief from Richelieu flooding

People living along the flooded Richelieu River south of Montreal are being told it will be several weeks before many of them can go back to their homes.

Officials monitoring water levels say, in spite of the sunshine, water levels may not go down for at least a few days.

In fact, Yvan Leroux, of Quebec's civil security service, said Friday that water levels may actually go up in the next few days.

"We will beexpecting, [over the next] 48 hours, a raise of about 15 centimetres," said Leroux.

He said the forecast is for 60 km/hr winds starting Sunday, and that also will mean more delays getting people back in their homes.

"We are talking about weeks for the complete reintegration, and maybe months," he said.

Leroux said about 900 residents have still not been able to return to their homes.

He said so far, the province has handed out about $4 million to about 1,600 flood victims.

Residents fed up

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu resident Eric Croteau said he's fed up with being surrounded by water.

It takes him about 20 minutes to carry his 13-month-old daughter in knee-deep water from his house to his car.

"Heavy. It's heavy. It's not like we can do anything about it," Croteau said.

Croteau said he's not fooled by Friday morning's sunshine.

"It's just nice that it won't rise this morning, but nothing leads us to the thinking that it's going to go down," he said.