Flood lays waste in St. Laurent

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This article was published 02/06/2011 (5516 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ST. LAURENT — For months, residents along Lake Manitoba have watched and worried as the swollen lake crept closer to their homes.

On Tuesday afternoon, the storm they long feared would drive the waves over the shore finally came.

While Winnipeg turned its attention to the return of the NHL, almost 15 cm of rain drenched western Manitoba. On Lake Manitoba, slashing winds sent waves crashing into shores from the RM of Alonsa to the RM of St. Laurent, swamping dikes and tossing debris all over beach communities.

As many as 700 homes were affected by the flooding, which surged up to a kilometre inland in some spots.

In the RM of St. Laurent, homes were hastily evacuated starting at about 6 p.m. as water came surging in, flinging piles of wood and entire sheds against failing sandbag dikes. Sixteen people had to be rescued by boat, and one resident had to be pulled from a home by helicopter, the province said.

A mandatory evacuation order will be in place until further notice.

Bruce Hymers spent the spring frantically sandbagging; his hands were still blistered when he attempted to flee his home in Twin Lakes Beach late Tuesday afternoon. He was turned back by angry waves rushing over the only road out of his home.

Minutes after he called the municipality for help, his power cut out.

“It was scary. The destruction out there was unbelievable,” he said, noting that he guesses up to 95 per cent of the beach was wiped out by the storm.

“I’ve never seen the lake this angry. The waves were ten feet high and they were taking out concrete walls. I saw my neighbour’s brick boathouse break apart and fall into the ocean.”

The day after the storm, many evacuees milled about the municipality office, hoping for a chance to get back to their properties to collect needed items.

But the roads were still closed, as officials worked to clear debris and assess the extent of the damage.

“It was insane,” said year-round Johnson Beach resident Pamela Loeb, sitting in the back of her truck with her three dogs and two of her cats. A third feline was nowhere to be found when RCMP came to rush her out of her house; Loeb hoped she might be escorted back to rescue it.

“The water came up so hard that it started rushing in behind the houses and into the fields. Parts of a shed came rolling by my house. It flooded over the dikes… One more storm and we’re toast.”

Loeb’s house, built up high, is largely safe from all but basement flooding, but at least one neighbour’s home was underwater; and in Twin Lakes Beach, the devastation was even worse.

“This is the biggest disaster we’ve seen,” RM of St. Laurent Reeve Earl Zotter said, sorting through photos of the damage.

“The storm we felt yesterday was probably something we’d expect in October, but with the lake being so high, it gave us a huge stomp. It was just a recipe for disaster.”

On Wednesday, Zotter took a helicopter tour of the area. Homes and trailers were inundated. Debris blocked roads, and the shoulders of many roads had been washed away.

Lake Manitoba is still two weeks away from its anticipated crest, swollen by water from the Portage Diversion. The Fairford River on the north end of the lake can’t take enough water away to cope with the inundation — meaning strong winds could threaten flooding for much of the summer.

Unless a solution is found, officials fear many homes may remain evacuated until the fall. For a municipality of only 1,500 year-round residents, where 70 per cent of the tax base comes from beach-oriented properties, the threat is difficult to bear.

“We’re in a very precarious position,” Zotter said. “Unless someone can miraculously knock three feet out of Lake Manitoba, there’s nothing that’s going to save us.”

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

— with files from Kevin Rollason

Minister attends town meeting

CLOSE to 300 fed up and flood-weary residents around Lake Manitoba gathered at the hall in Langruth on Wednesday to vent and demand action.

“There was a lot of anger and frustration,” said Reeve Philip Thordarson of the RM of Lakeview.

“A lot of people are very stressed out,” he added, after stepping out of the meeting that lasted more than three hours. “There’s so much more water coming into the lake than can get out. That has to be dealt with.”

Channelling flood waters through the Portage Diversion has dumped the brunt of the burden on people around Lake Manitoba.

Everyone from farmers, cottagers and First Nations residents to people with pricey homes on Delta Beach is getting hammered by the flooding.

“This is a disaster for our area of unbelievable proportions” that’s going to have a long-term impact, affecting people’s livelihoods and property values, Thordarson said.

For the first time in more than 100 years, his family farm has had to move its cattle to higher ground.

No one from Manitoba Water Stewardship attended Wednesday’s meeting but Agriculture Minister Stan Struthers was there, said Thordarson.

“People here want immediate action. He’s assuring us he plans to do something,” said Thordarson.

But for people whose homes are wiped out and whose property values are plummeting, there needs to be longer-term compensation, the reeve said.

— Carol Sanders