Floodwaters wash out roads, cut off communities in Manitoba's Parkland area

Severe flooding in western Manitoba has blown out culverts, collapsed roads and eroded some riverbanks so much that a number of bridges have been closed, leaving some communities with no way in or out.

"We're in a bad predicament out here," saidFred Boucher, who lives in Mafeking, in west-central Manitoba. "Pretty well everybody around the surrounding areas are all affected by this.All these communities are suffering."

Multiple snowstorms through winter left the area covered in deep snow that only recently started to melt in a torrent exacerbated by heavy rains over the past couple of weeks.

The raging waterrunningdown from thePorcupine Hillshas carved into nearly everything in its way.

"The river, it's coming down [and] making its own channels, taking trees and everything," saidBoucher, 66, who lives in Mafeking, acommunity of about 100 people around 420kilometres northwest of WinnipegonHighway 10in the rural municipality of Mountain.

No homes in Mafeking are threatened, but no one can get in or out of the community because the water has eroded the embankments at both ends of the bridges south and north of town.

"As of right now, no one is even allowed to walk across," said Boucher, who once worked for Manitoba Highways and is now retired.

The only other way out, to the west on Highway 77, is closed because water is coveringthe road in about nine places, he said.

"It's not a good situation if you're an elder in this town right now," Boucher said. "We'd probably have to dial 911 and we'd probably have to get someone out of here by chopper. That would be the only way."

The province issued anoverland flood warning for the Parkland region on Monday, Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure's Hydrologic Forecast Centresaid in a flood bulletin.

The top priority is restoring vehicle access on critical highways and provincial roads in the area, Infrastructure MinisterDoyle Piwniuk said in an interview on Monday.

Robert Hanson, reeve for the rural municipality of Mountain, who also lives in Mafeking, saidthere isa state-of-the-art ambulance station in the communitybut no paramedics at the moment.

"They were in Swan River when the bridge washed out taking somebody down there and they couldn't get back," he said.

He's also heard of people from Mafeking who were running errands in Swan River andare now stuck outside their home community.

"They don't have the financial [ability] tostay in the hotels, so we're going to put them up in the hotels inSwan River until we can get them back home," he said.

A contractor started working Sunday night to push some rock under the north bridge to shore it up, but there is no indication when it might be reopened.

No work has started to the south, which is the main route people take to get to Swan River, the largest nearby town.

"Most of us, our doctors and dentists, everything is in Swan," whichis typically a 40-minute drive, Boucher said. If the north bridge becomes the only way out, that drive becomes a nine-hour detour going north and east and then south through the Interlake before coming back west.

Mafeking has one grocery store and its supplies are starting to run out, because everybody is shopping there and there's nothing coming in, Boucher said.

ChristopherKematch, who also lives in Mafeking and has been keeping residents informed by making regular treks to the bridges to get updates, said he has been told it could be another 14-20 days before the north bridge is opened.

"We're hoping it will be sooner, but it's really hard to say," he said.

He's concerned the communitycould also lose itspower.

"They tell us that they're going to shut off our hydro because in Bellsite[just south of Mafeking] there's hydro poles hanging down. They're almostat the point where they're going to collapse."

It's hard to believe the flooding after last year, when it was so dry and the rivers were so low that it was possible towalk across in shoes and not get wet, said Kematch, 53.

"Oh, boy, I never seen anything like this. This rain has really taken a toll all of a sudden," he said.

"But we all keep in touch and try to keep a positive mind, not to talk negative, just to keep a positive mind that we're going to pull through this."

While homes in Mafeking are safe for now, there are properties outside the communitythat are at risk of flooding, said Hanson, whodeclared astate of emergency in the region on Sunday.

"These farm roads a lot of them are washed out, and there's one place over by Pine Creek where the people couldn't get out of their home.So it's a real mess all through here," he said.

"I would think at least a dozen homes in the southern part of the RM of Mountain would have big-time water problems. Up here in Mafeking, we're in the foothills of the Porcupine Mountains, so we don't have the same problems they do down there on the flatlands."

Hanson echoed Kematch's comments about the flooding happening quickly, almost like a flash flood.

On Friday night, hewas driving on Highway 10, with a neighbour following about 100 yards behind,when the water suddenly burst outfrom the hillsand across the road between them.

Between Bellsite and Mafeking, a distance of about 11 kilometres, water was rushingoutinthree different places, Hanson said.

"It's really something, boy, I'll tell you. You can expect, when it's raining for a couple of days, you gotta be on your toes."

Floodwaters wash out roads, cut off communities in Manitoba's Parkland area

2 years ago

Duration 1:41

Severe flooding in western Manitoba has blown out culverts, collapsed roads and eroded some riverbanks so much that a number of bridges have been closed, leaving some communities with no way in or out.