Homeowners will have to wait
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Monthly Digital Subscription
$1 per week for 24 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $4.00 plus GST every four weeks. After 24 weeks, price increases to the regular rate of $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
Monthly Digital Subscription
$4.99/week*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Billed as $19.95 plus GST every four weeks. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
*Your next subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $16.99 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $23.99 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/04/2009 (6186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
BREEZY POINT — When owners of homes flooded by water and smashed by ice here are finally allowed back in to see their places, they won’t be alone.
Property owners will be escorted by Rural Municipality of St. Andrews volunteer firefighters both for physical and emotional support.
It may be very difficult emotionally for some people when they see their homes or cottages, explained St. Andrews Reeve Don Forfar. Firefighters can also help move furniture or other heavy items.
It will also be done in orderly fashion with only small groups allowed in at one time. "It will be incremental," he said.
There was no timetable Tuesday for when the mandatory evacuation might be lifted. Flooding and massive ice slabs ripped through Breezy Point last Saturday night, damaging most of the 122 residences, about 50 of which are permanent homes.
Much work has to be done before people can be allowed back in. Giant slabs of ice still blocked Breezy Point Road. Many hydro poles had been knocked down.
Once power has been restored, Manitoba Hydro will have to turn on the power of every residence to ensure the home is safe.
The Red River has also not hit its crest yet.
Homeowner B. J. Schofield showed up Tuesday only to be turned away by security guards are blocking the road to Breezy Point.
However, he viewed his property and others in a little 14-foot open boat on Monday, a violation of the evacuation order.
"There was about a foot and a half of water in my house," but no ice damage, Schofield said.
He saw four or five houses hit hard by ice damage. "One cabin got totally smashed in. About a seven-foot-wall of ice went straight through one house," he said.
Some homes had been knocked off their pilings. Many more boat houses were smashed but Schofield didn’t know if there had been boats inside them.
The majority of buildings had flood damage alone, Schofield said.
From a helicopter, Forfar said it looked like two rivers in the area: the Red River, and a river of water covering much of the road into Breezy Point.
— Bill Redekop
