Overland flooding washes out roads, damages homes in Manitoba

Emergency teams worked into the early hours Thursday to make sure an expectant mother, a cardiac patient and others were transferred to health facilities across Manitoba after rapid rain and flooding closed the only medical centre in the western city of Dauphin.

To the north, where the town of Swan River was battered by rising water levels for the second time in less than a month, the province requested military support from the federal government.

“This morning, the federal government has received the Government of Manitoba’s formal Request for Federal assistance,” said Eleanor Olszewski, the minister of emergency management. “We are working with the province to assess evolving local needs so together we can determine the best ways to support the flood response on the ground to ensure Manitobans get the help they need.

“As response efforts continue and recovery planning begins, the federal government will remain actively engaged, including through the Disaster Financial Assistance Arrangements, which provides financial support to provinces and territories recovering from major natural disasters.”

Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew toured both areas Thursday.

“Folks in the Parklands have seen flooding before, but not like this, not to this extent, not to this scale,” Kinew told reporters during his tour.

He said he reached out to Ottawa after Swan River’s mayor requested help to relieve volunteers and other workers. The town of about 4,000 is northwest of Winnipeg near the Saskatchewan boundary.

“There’s a need to look after the people who are leading the front-line response,” Kinew said.

“If the federal government can bring in some of their resources, it just helps to ease the burden on those who’ve already been shouldering it.”

The premier said he hoped to get a response within two days.

Dauphin health centre closed

In Dauphin, a community of about 8,300 west of Winnipeg, all 54 patients, including a baby, were safely transferred to health facilities in Winnipeg, Brandon and other locations by about 3 a.m.

“It was a big effort to get everybody relocated,” Kinew said.

Dauphin’s health centre, which services surrounding rural communities, was closed until further notice, with no timeline for when services will return. Shared Health says 54 patients were evacuated from the hospital, many of whom were sent to the Brandon Regional Health Centre.

“The hospital itself lost power due to significant flooding in the basement of the health facility, so our main power source was knocked out, as well as the HVAC system and computer network access,” said Treena Slate, the CEO of Prairie Mountain Health.

“We had the fortunate circumstance of opening our new critical care building in Brandon and so we had some capacity with the new beds that opened and the former medical unit, so we were able to open some additional beds with that space, and we had some available bed capacity as well.”

City officials said backup generators in the Dauphin health centre basement were compromised because of the flood. A mobile medical clinic was expected to open nearby.

“If you’re in the Swan Valley or one of the very, very impacted areas, we are still telling you to call 911 or your local emergency service and we will come get you,” Premier Kinew said. “In areas closer to Dauphin, and in some of these areas where road access is a real possibility, then of course that mobile clinic across from the Dauphin hospital, the Ste. Rose emergency department, these are areas you can access.”

The city is in cleanup mode after getting about 115 millimetres of rain since Sunday.

“The water came fast and it went fast,” Mayor David Bosiak added. “It’s just a matter now of remediating and cleaning some seepage in a few areas.”

‘A bit of despair,’ says Swan River resident

In Swan River, located 480 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg near the Saskatchewan boundary, flooding hit homes and washed out roads.

A mandatory evacuation order was issued Wednesday for the hardest-hit part of the town, where about 150 people live.

“Each and everyone is looking after their own. And there is no plan. You know how it is when it’s an emergency, when it’s a surprise,” said Swan River resident Pam Greg.

Mayor Lance Jacobson said residents with flooded homes are feeling anxious as they wait for the water to recede and see how bad the damage is.

“People are sitting on the edge of the street, looking down at their properties that are underwater and can’t get to their home to see if their cat is in the house, or what has happened inside their home,” he said.

Lynne Fraser’s sister Elizabeth Peden lives in Swan River. She is 70 and now stranded in her home as her son is stuck in Minitonas due to flooding.

Fraser says the basement of Peden’s home is flooded with water levels up to her knees.

Without overland insurance, Peden is worried for her property, but the financial aftermath has yet to hit the community.

“It’s like grief,” Fraser told CityNews. “She doesn’t even feel it yet. It’s like she is so busy with it right now dealing with it in the moment.”

Darlyn Hunt lives in the rural municipality of Swan Valley West. She is frustrated as her home was flooded this week for the second time in less than a month

“I think we are just feeling a bit of despair,” she said.

“We are some of the families that lost their entire homes.”

Since the first flood, the family has worked 12 hours a day for the past two weeks working on repairs. With no access to the home, Hunt is uncertain what she will see stepping in her yard.

“I think a lot of people have fear that this could happen again.”

On June 9, the town declared a state of emergency after a downpour caused nearby waterways to flood parts of the community. The state of emergency expires July 8.

“If we have to renew this, we will,” said Mayor Jacobson. “We’ll keep this going as long as we need to.”

The deluge of rain has put pressure on the hundreds of volunteers who have been working around the clock since last month to protect homes, even as the water flowed so fast in places that sandbags were washed away.

Crews have once again had to cut open several roads and a rail line to help lower water levels.

While heavy rain had lifted in Swan River, the water appeared to have only slightly receded as of Thursday morning, said Jacobson.

“You wake up in the morning and you hope that everything is gone away and, you look out and there’s still a lake in places where it should be a park.”

Some areas of the Parkland region, which includes Swan River, received as much as 200 millimetres of rain in recent days, leading to overland flooding, water covering roads and dozens of washouts.

Water has damaged up to 50 roads in the province.

While in Dauphin, Premier Kinew announced the province has brought forward a multi-million-dollar cash advance program, with the disaster financial assistance already up and running.

“The idea behind the $5 million is we know on the provincial side there’s a bunch of roads and bridges that are going to need to be repaired, so the need at the municipal side is going to be there as well, and we don’t want any resource or financial question to get in the way of getting people back to normal,” he said.