'This is all we had': Flooded-out residents try to salvage what they can in Peguis First Nation

To get to her house, Peguis First Nation resident Jessica Sutherland needs to board a tank-like vehicle that can wade through the rising flood waters.

On Friday, she returned to her house for the first time in six days to save what she could.

As the vehicle approached the house, the water became so deep that the wheels were no longer touching the ground, and it began to float, as it's designed to do.

Sutherland's grandparents built the house, and she lives there with her mother and six-year-old daughter. The house is now destroyed.

"We have no home to come back to. This is all we had," Sutherland said through tears.

Sloshing through the water, she gathered what she could: ribbon skirts, photos of her daughter's late father, and as many essentials as would fit in the plastic bins.

Sutherland has experienced flooding before, but not like this.In the living room, one of her couches is floating.

"It's normal here for us to flood, but we're usually able to save our home," she said.

About 200 homes in Peguis look like Sutherland's: completely unlivable, and unsalvageable.

Before leaving the home that she loves, Sutherland took a few pictures, unsure of what she'll come back to.

Almost 1,600 people displaced

Angie Flett is frantically trying to save her 86-year-old auntie's house, before it becomes unsalvageable like Sutherland's.

Volunteers piled sandbags in front of the elder's homeon Peguis First Nation, in Manitoba's Interlake region, on Friday even though the floodwaters werealready lapping againstthe home's foundation.

"She woke up Sunday morning, she said she was surrounded by a lake," said Flett. Her aunt's home is across the highway from the Fisher River, which burst its banks lastweekend.

Her aunt left the community that day, but by the time Flett made it there on Monday, the road leading to the house was covered.

More than a metre of water has swamped the crawl space of thehome, destroying personal items like clothing, shoes, canning supplies and the air conditioner.

As of Friday afternoon,1,590 evacuees have fled their homes in Peguis,according to Chief Glenn Hudson, with 700 homes evacuated.Hundreds of those homes are surrounded by water.

Volunteers showed up to helpon Friday,building a sandbag wall in wateralready calf-deep.

Flett said her aunt's home is "not as bad as some people's homes."

"Her house might be still saveable, but others have not been able to save their homes, and it's overwhelming," she said.

"It's so devastating. So many people have lost their homes. Some do not have a home to come home to."

There's no running water in the house and the breakers keep tripping, Flett said. She has pumps going around the clock, but the water doesn't go down.

"It's just pumping the water out, and it just keeps coming in," she said.

"I'm just thankful for all the volunteers and the people coming out to help Peguis in this time, because I have never seen anything like this."

The Canadian Red Cross is co-ordinating evacuation efforts with the First Nation.

People from the community are being put up in hotels in Winnipeg, Gimli, Selkirk and Brandon, Indigenous Services Canada said, with more capacity in Portage la Prairie.

About 100 people from both the First Nation Community Response Corporation and the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs have arrived in the community to help with things like sandbagging and monitoring of roads.

The federal government is helping with the costs of sandbagging and dike construction, and equipment needed to help pump out water.

Residents from the personal care home in Peguis have been transferred to the Southeast Resource Development Council's former alternate isolation accommodations site for care, a spokesperson for Indigenous Services Canada said in an email Friday.

There was somehopefrom flood forecasters on Thursday, who said theFisher River should recede within its banks by Monday at Peguis First Nation and late next week further downstream.

Fisaha Unduche, the director of Manitoba's hydrologic forecast centre, said on Thursday that both the Fisher River and the Icelandic River further southshould stop overflowing their banks by May 13 at all points down to Lake Winnipeg.

Flood-ravaged Peguis First Nation

2 years ago

Duration 2:26

People living in Peguis First Nation are struggling after a week of fighting floodwaters. Some community members are staying to salvage what they can and say goodbye to the homes they love.