“Summer is becoming a bigger issue,” says CEO of Renovco Walter Assi on the increase in flooding and heavy rains – as Montreal saw as much rain Sunday in a few hours, as it does for all of July. Tehosterihens Deer reports.
Montreal, July 14, 2025 — Following Sunday’s intense rainstorm — which dumped a month’s worth of precipitation on Montreal in just a few hours — Renovco’s CEO Walter Assi is urging homeowners to take immediate, preventative steps to protect their properties from water damage.
At the height of the storm, nearly 100,000 Hydro-Québec customers were without power. Flash flooding impacted homes across the city, including areas that weren’t affected during last year’s floods.
“Make sure that you don’t have any negative grading going towards the house, five feet away from the house and you’ve reduced your potential 80 to 90 per cent,” said Assi in an interview with CityNews. “A lot of homes don’t have backwater valves, they don’t have sump pumps, they don’t have extensions on their downspouts. Water will find its way through.”
He stressed that one of the most overlooked risk factors is improper gutter placement.
“You’re better off not having a gutter at all if that’s what you’re going to do,” he explained, “because you’re bringing all the water to one location and overloading that one location. If you do have a foundation crack, if you do have negative slope in your yard, that’s gonna be a problem.”
Assi also recommended installing a functioning backwater valve and battery-powered sump pumps as essential tools in flood preparedness.
This interview originally appeared on CityNews Montreal, July 14, 2025.
