Westman woman spearheads effort for disaster aid after flooding

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This article was published 10/07/2020 (2251 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — A Manitoba woman is doing her part to ensure hundreds of people affected by recent heavy rain storms apply for provincial disaster financial assistance.

Deana Dupuis is making herself available this week and next at the Yellowhead Regional Employment Skills and Services location in Minnedosa to help residents fill out a one-page application.

Dupuis said due to her husband being a federal government employee, she was aware there are programs for such circumstances. Recently, Manitoba Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler described the rainfall that hit the southwestern region as a once-in-a-1,000-year event.

“I made some calls, phoned up the numbers that were given for (disaster financial assistance) program, talked to a few people, some really awesome ladies, who said. ‘Here’s the deal,’” Dupuis said.

“They said No. 1, you need to get enough people to apply, to even open the doors for this program… If not enough people apply, no one’s going to get anything because the province has to declare it. That’s when the funds would become available.”

That’s a bit of a problem for area residents, said Dupuis, because they are always talking about others who got hit harder than they did. “Or they’re reluctant to ask for help, because some people completely lost their homes. They’ve got nothing. So people wanted to make sure it (disaster financial assistance) was going to the right place.”

She said her focus is to make certain anybody who has damage to their home applies: “That is going to help everyone access these funds.”

A provincial spokesperson confirmed the information.

“The best way for those with impacts in the private sector to identify their impacts is to submit an application through the DFA program. The information that they provide will help the government to determine how best to support Manitobans in their recovery,” the spokesperson stated.

Meanwhile, the cleanup continues.

Dominique Hampton did not sustain any water damage to her Minnedosa home, but ended up becoming the go-to volunteer organizer for sandbagging, demolition, and garbage removal.

While she doesn’t have an official tally, Hampton said hundreds of homes were affected. Sandbagging in Minnedosa, 50 kilometres north of Brandon, began after a storm dumped 155.5 millimetres of rain.

“We made around 20,000 sandbags,” she said, adding 84 homes were evacuated, though only 12 were under a mandatory evacuation order.

In the end, more than 220 mm was dumped on the area.

“On Saturday, we had about 45 houses that either needed help with demolition or that had demo-ed the basements and needed garbage runs,” Hampton said.

“Some basements had anywhere from four feet of water and some basements were right near the ceiling. Everything that was in the basement, whether furniture, freezers, fridges, washers and dryers, all that kind of stuff had to be taken to the dump.”

Businesses were also hit hard; Minnedosa’s main street flooded twice.

Hampton said volunteers came from other communities to help clean up.

“It was nice to come in with a group of positive people, helping them get their situation under control. People would say, ‘We were so overwhelmed but you guys came and did all the work that would have taken us weeks and now we can get on with rebuilding our basement or rebuilding our house,’” she said.

“It made us feel good to be able to help them get through this thing.”

— Brandon Sun