The deputy chief tells peacefulcommunities.ca that sometime today he expects the 30 remaining basements in the city to have been pumped. Then, the messy reality remains, which is expected to cost the city millions of dollars in personal and municipal damages before all is said and done.

Gervais says a long list of municipalities from all over the province have stepped forward with offers of help. Toronto, Oshawa, Brighton, Ajax, Kingston, Belleville, the City of Kawartha Lakes, Almonte and Cornwall were just some of the municipalities that offered help, says Gervais.

As well, the Mennonite Disaster Service, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the coast guard also extended help. While not all offers were necessarily accepted for logistical reasons, he says, they were all appreciated.

"You can imagine the unbelievable support we had across Ontario. I think that says a lot about our province and it is certainly greatly appreciated," he says.

Most of the help was with pumps and with manpower, Gervais notes. He says manpower is particularly important because of the seniors and people with disabilities who were affected by the flood.

"The bulk of it was manpower, for moving furniture," he explains.

As well, garbage trucks were brought in from other municipalities to help haul away the ruined goods now sitting on city curbs.

It was early morning Thursday when an intense storm dumped almost 200 millimetres of rain on Peterborough, overpowering the city's sewage system and flooding Jackson Creek.

Gervais says the level of co-operation between all the fire departments of all the County of Peterborough’s municipalities can’t be underestimated either. "They’ve been tremendous for us. They’ve all gone beyond the call of duty," he says.

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