Residents in Ottawa's west end gathered Tuesday night to hear city officials speak about their response to the recent sewage overflow that flooded homes in Kanata and Stittsville.Residents in Ottawa's west end gathered Tuesday night to hear city officials speak about their response to the recent sewage overflow that flooded homes in Kanata and Stittsville. (Johnny Keogh/CBC)

City of Ottawa officials apologized Thursday for the way they responded to flooding in Ottawa's west end last weekend.

For nearly a week, residents in Kanata and Stittsville have been dealing with soggy belongings and water damage after heavy rainfall caused sewage overflows that seeped into many basements.

At a public forum held Thursday night in Stittsville, city manager Kent Kirkpatrick said the city was sorry for its poor response to the flooding of homes.

"For those failures, I am sorry, and I want to apologize to you personally and on behalf of the city," he said to the residents gathered at the meeting.

Mounds of debris still line many streets in Kanata and Stittsville where residents have been airing out their belongings and deciding what to throw away and what to keep.Mounds of debris still line many streets in Kanata and Stittsville where residents have been airing out their belongings and deciding what to throw away and what to keep. (Julia Kilpatrick/CBC)

Kirkpatrick said the city's emergency response suffered from poor communication, which it will work to improve.

"We need to identify … why did these funny events happen?" said Kirkpatrick.

"We'll be focusing on the city's infrastructure — did it perform the way it's been designed and built and maintained to perform?"

Kirkpatrick said getting to the root of the problem would also help the city figure out its liability in terms of the damage done by the floods.

He said an investigation is being conducted into the flooding, and the findings would be available at the end of August.

In the meantime, resident Rahbin Guha, said he wonders why he and his neighbours should continue paying their property taxes.

"Would you pay for a flawed car? Why would we pay for a flawed system? Look me in the eye and tell everybody here that we don't have a flawed system," Guha said in front of the group.

City officials said 952 residents have registered as victims of the floods.

They also said they expect to receive 1,000 claims for property damage.