The City of Montreal has decided to extend the state of emergency across the island for an additional five days.

The decision was made Sunday afternoon at an extraordinary council meeting held in the borough of Pierrefonds-Roxboro.

The decree allows the city to order mandatory evacuations.

It also gives the fire department, tasked with coordinating flood relief efforts, more powers to spend money, requisition private property and take other measures to protect homes.

Montreal Fire Chief Bruno Lachance, who is heading the emergency relief efforts, said there is still work to be done.

“We are still expecting an increase in water levels today and tomorrow,” he said, adding the next 48 hours were critical.

Pierrefonds Mayor Jim Beis says water levels in the borough have now exceeded those of the devastating spring floods of 2017.

The primary concern in Pierrefonds, according to the mayor, is to make sure the dikes hold.

On 5 Avenue, residents built a 0.5-km dike on top of a permanent dirt dike that was built some years ago. But that dirt dike has now begun to fail in multiple places.

The residents are now in a race to build a second dike five meters in, to hopefully stop the water from going any further.

Lachance said dikes are being closely monitored, but explained most of the current flooding in Pierrefonds has been caused by sewers backing up.

A system of balloons has been installed which blocks river water from backing up into the sewers, but some of them have failed.

“The balloons are difficult to install because of water pressure and the current,” Lachance said.

The city of Montreal has an updated map of road closure online, otherwise consult Quebec 511 for closures across the province.

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