Torrential rainfall floods Westman communities

A massive, slow-moving thunderstorm system that brought torrential rainfall to western Manitoba late Monday afternoon flooded streets and basements from Boissevain to Brandon, with at least five communities receiving more than 100 mm of rain.

Boissevain received 152 millimetres of rain, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC). Other communities that received more than 100 mm of rain included Deloraine (129.8), Minto (113.3), Neepawa (101.4), Plumas (101.3) and Rivers (100.8), according to ECCC data.

ECCC meteorologist Brian Proctor said the “very active area of thunderstorms” developed Monday afternoon over North Dakota before pushing north toward southwestern Manitoba.

The weather system produced “copious amounts of precipitation in portions of Westman.”

Proctor declined to say how much rain the region received this month compared to previous years.

Here in Brandon on Tuesday, crews were preparing equipment near Grand Valley Road in order to build a dike if water levels on the Assiniboine River continued to rise.

The city received as much as 67 mm of rain on Monday evening, ECCC data shows, the 16th highest among reporting stations.

The city’s emergency co-ordinator, Tobin Praznik, on Tuesday said he expects water levels to continue rising in the coming days, as the Assiniboine and Little Saskatchewan rivers received additional rain upstream.

If water levels go overtop the scenic route, which is known as Highway 459, then crews will plug the road so water doesn’t go onto 18th Street North, Kirkcaldy Drive and the Corral Centre, Praznik said.

“Depending on the river levels and flows, there’s a chance that it could exceed Grand Valley Road,” he said. “If the forecast does deem that necessary, then we’ll take the necessary steps to close that off.”

He said the earth moving equipment being placed there is out of “an abundance of caution.”

Praznik said there had been multiple cars stall in the city during the storm, there were several roads flooded over and some back lanes even washed out. City transit was also forced to detour in some areas.

Tuesday’s focus was to assess the damage while crews responded to concerns voiced by city residents.

Canada Day celebrations planned for Wednesday in the Municipality of Boissevain-Morton had been cancelled following Monday’s downpour as the community began dealing with the aftermath.

“In town, it was a nightmare, actually,” Boissevain-Morton Head of Council Judy Swanson said on Tuesday.

“My rain gage holds six inches, and it was over that in an hour and a half, it’s got nowhere to go,” Swanson said.

She said she had never seen rain come down so hard.

On Tuesday, the municipality called a state of emergency. The heavy rain caused the sewer system to back up. People also lined up at insurance buildings on Tuesday morning, she said.

Swanson said all of the equipment in Boissevain was in working order, but that the system was “overloaded” and “overwhelmed.”

Residents were being told on Tuesday to lower their water usage, such as avoiding doing their laundry, to give the system time to clean out.

“Everyone is going to be dealing with cleanup,” Swanson said.

The Municipality of Deloraine-Winchester also declared a state of emergency on Tuesday and warned non-residents to stay off some roads.

Boissevain resident Darren Sicinski said his home flooded on Tuesday after the sewer backed up and water rushed out of his toilet.

“Before the water started really coming in, me and my wife Heather, we just kind of got as much as stuff as we could out of there, like our passports and all our important information,” he said. “Everything else can be replaced.”

“This morning we woke up to just over two feet of water in the basement, and everything was just destroyed,” Sicinski said.

After putting out a call for help, volunteers from Minto came to help clean up Sicinski’s home with sump pumps. As of Tuesday, Sicinski was needing help to move all of the damaged items upstairs.

Meanwhile, Minto-area farmer Jake Ayre said the “sudden downpours” caused a lot of overland flooding.

“The one approach to our farm completely washed out. I mean, the water is subsiding, but it was going over the road, the culverts just couldn’t handle that much water that fast,” said Ayre, who is the Keystone Agricultural Producers’ vice president and district 1 director for the Boissevain area.

It’s hard to know what people will be able to do and what will be recoverable, he said.

“The biggest thing we need right now is for that water to be able to move and get off the land.”

He and his father have been farming in the area for 24 years, he said, and this is only the second time they’ve seen their land so full of water.

“It looks like we have a lake right now,” he said.

“Hopefully the water will be able to flow off and move, but I know at the moment everyone’s kind of trying to help move any excess water, or ensure that drains and culverts and stuff are flowing and free of debris,” Ayre said.

He said a lot of people would probably not be spending their Canada Day as they had originally planned.

» alambert@brandonsun.com