Floodwaters cut unforgiving path

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This article was published 16/05/2022 (1399 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Recent rains and flooding in the Parkland region have left local municipalities with numerous washed-out roads and damaged bridges.

While flooding in many areas of Manitoba occurs either when rivers rise over days and weeks until they spill their banks or when water with no place to go floods fields and houses, in areas such the Municipality of Ethelbert, water goes through in fast-rushing torrents.

Ethelbert councillor Larry Dudar, who is also a cattle producer, said it’s what happens when you’re located in an area downhill between the escarpment and the lakes water eventually flows to.

“Because of that angle, when the water is coming down, it is taking everything out,” Dudar said Monday.

“It was unbelievable. It was the most water I’ve ever seen. There were bridges covered with water… We’re going to have to inspect them to make sure they’re still safe.”

Dudar said as fast as the water comes, it is gone in the municipality. At one point, a creek was so swollen on part of his land he couldn’t get to his cattle; the next day it was gone, so he could bring the feed to the animals.

“(The water) just eats paths through fields and then they get dry and you go there and, because there is no water, you wonder why there is a path cut through the fields,” he said.

“A lot of people don’t understand the speed of the water. I don’t know what’s worse, the water rushing by or just sitting there for two weeks.”

Parkland was hit with heavy rain last weekend, with between 40 to 90 millimetres hitting the Duck Mountain and Porcupine Hills areas.

Kerri Scott Paziuk, the municipality’s chief administrative officer, said it doesn’t have a final count of roads damaged in recent days. However, in just one of its four wards alone, it has 39 washouts and nine more roads that are impassable.

“It will be a huge project to repair them all,” she said.

Further east, Alonsa Reeve Tom Anderson said with more rain predicted for later this week, some residents are planning to stay in their homes.

“They don’t want to leave,” he said. “One said they have supplies and they are prepared to stay for a few days. At this point, it is wait and see what happens.”

Anderson said officials are compiling damaged infrastructure in preparation for making an application for disaster relief.

Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said there is flooding in several areas of Manitoba.

“This year, it has been very unique because we’ve been impacted here, especially in the Red River Valley, but this time we’ve also been impacted with when it comes to Morden (and) Winkler,” Piwniuk said.

“Morden was hit hard. Altona was hit hard. Gretna had to be sandbagged at the border crossing. And now we have the situation happening in the Duck Mountains.”

Piwniuk said to top it all off, yet another weather system laden with precipitation may be on its way to the province. “We are keeping an eye on it.”

A long section of Highway 10, a major north-south route between southern Manitoba to The Pas and Flin Flon, is closed at several points due to road washouts. The washouts of three bridges near Mafeking have cut off that community until they are repaired.

Piwniuk said provincial crews will be inspecting and fixing the road as quick as they can. “We know, economically, we need to get Highway 10 in operation.”

Piwniuk said the Red River has crested at the floodway. Thirty-three municipalities and five First Nations communities across the province are still in states of emergency due to flooding.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca