Waiting for the river to recede hits Swan River residents hard

Days after torrential rain caused the Swan River to breach its banks and pour into the streets and homes, residents of the flood-ravaged town could do little more than wait for the water to recede.

“It’s this limbo period where we’ve done everything we can, and there’s not much more we can do because we can’t make the river disappear,” resident Morgan Buck said Friday.

“I feel like I could use a vacation once this is all done. It’s overwhelming.”

Several streets in the town of Swan River were subject to mandatory evacuation orders on Wednesday, marking the second time the community has flooded in recent weeks. Data from Environment and Climate Change Canada shows nearly 270 millimetres of rain fell on the area in June.

The downpour wreaked havoc on the town, and elsewhere in the Parkland region by wiping out roadways and infrastructure, shuttering business and swamping homes.

Swan River Mayor Lance Jacobson said water levels had dropped by about 0.3 metres (one foot) since late Wednesday or Thursday morning, but floodwater continued to surround homes in some areas.

While a handful of residents pumped water out of their homes Friday, dozens of evacuees were not yet allowed to return.

Jacobson estimated it would take several more days for the water to recede.

“They’re obviously devastated. They’re thinking about the rebuilding and getting back to their homes,” Jacobson said.

“For the most part there’s a lot of anxiety because they obviously want the water to recede and go away, and then start the cleanup and rebuilding process.”

He said as many as 200 homes in the town had flooded. Some evacuees are staying in hotels or in campers.

Buck, who is acting manager of the town’s recreation department, is one of several people who are staffing a support centre that’s been established at the Veteran’s Community Hall. Volunteers have spent days cooking meals, fielding questions and arranging social services and accommodations for disoriented evacuees, she said.

“You’re hearing everybody’s story. People are walking in and bursting into tears, and just overwhelmed. We are telling them, ‘It’s OK,’ and ‘We understand,’ because we really do,” she said.

“We just feel defeated and it’s really hard to watch everybody kind of just wait.”

Despite the difficult circumstances, Buck said the Parkland region has rallied in the face of the natural disaster.

“The whole province is really going to have to come together just to get through this season. It’s looking like it’s going to be a tough year at this rate,” she said.

Buck urged Swan River residents not to risk returning to their homes before it is deemed safe. Many unknown hazards could lie beneath the murky water that continues to flow in currents through town, she said.

“We know the water is dropping, so it’s really tempting to go back in, but the water is moving quick, it is muddy, there is debris in the water that we cannot see,” she said.

“We just really want to make sure everybody is safe.”

Outside town, in the Rural Municipality of Swan Valley West, some work had begun to restore damaged infrastructure, Reeve Bill Gade said Friday afternoon.

“Water is down practically everywhere. In many of the spots now the current is gone, so we are able to start repairs on them. We’ve got a bunch of people out doing that today, fixing roads already,” Gade said.

“There’s so much frustration that this has happened a second time, but people are being good about it. They know we didn’t order the rain, we can’t stop it from coming. All we can do is clean up the mess after.”

Some residents in rural areas remain stranded because floodwater has destroyed or restricted access by road, he said.

Will Dueck, who lives on a homestead between Swan River and Minitonas, said the damage is worse than the first time the region flooded June 9.

The influx of additional water washed out recently repaired roads, making it “an adventure to travel,” he said.

Tanya Chernyk, who lives about 16 kilometres outside Swan River, agreed.

“There are people who can’t get out. They are completely trapped,” she said. “So many lives got disrupted and destroyed… there are families that can’t get to see other families and it’s really heartbreaking,” she said.

Chernyk said she watches the weather forecast, anxious that more rain could fall.

Environment Canada called for showers on Saturday, with a possible risk of thunderstorm. The forecast predicts sunny conditions as of Sunday.

— With files from Chris Kitching and Nicole Buffie

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca