Oakview municipality declares state of emergency

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This article was published 29/06/2020 (2154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Rural Municipality of Oakview declared a state of emergency this morning, in the aftermath of severe rainstorms in the southwest region of Manitoba.

Washed out roads, flooded farmyards and damaged infrastructure are top of the list of the storm’s effects in the area.

“The town of Rapid City was not only hit with the windstorm, but they were also hit with the heavy, heavy flooding, which has impacted the dam,” said chief administrative officer Marci Quane.

“That is now impacting everything downstream of that.”

Along with Rapid City, Oakview includes the towns of Oak River, Cardale and Basswood.

“Through-out the whole municipality, we’ve been taking reports of road wash-outs, infrastructure problems,” Quane said.

By 11 a.m. on Monday, the municipality had received nearly three dozen reports.

Reports of a tornado, Quane said, came from southeast of Rapid City, outside the RM of Oakview.

“Everyone’s safe. It did affect quite a few farmyards, and a couple of homes, as well, but emergency services have reported that everybody is safe,” Quane said.

“Right now we’re just trying to get a grasp on what the damage is. We’re trying to document and hear from our ratepayers. Then we are definitely going to need help with the clean-up.”

 

» mletourneau@brandonsun.com

 

» Michele LeTourneau covers indigenous matters for The Brandon Sun under the Local Journalism Initiative, a federally funded program that supports the creation of original civic journalism.