Electrical power returned to parts of southwestern Alberta this week while a damaged bridge remained closed near Porcupine Plain, Sask., after heavy rainfall halted harvest and forced several districts to declare themselves disaster areas.
Neal Hardy, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities, expects as many as 100 RMs to apply for provincial disaster assistance.
Driving from his home in Hudson Bay to his offices in Regina on Sept. 18, he noted how few combines he saw en route.
“There’s water all over the fields at Yorkton,” he said.
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Low commodity prices combined with high fuel and fertilizer costs have further dampened farmers’ spirits.
“It’s just pretty hard to have optimism on that,” he said.
Hail reported
Hardest hit areas include Arborfield, Naicam, Hudson Bay and Porcupine Plain, some of which experienced hail and heavy rainstorms during the second week of September.
The Provincial Disaster Assistance Program provides funds to restore essential services and property to local governments and individuals that experienced uninsurable damage to property caused by a natural disaster.
The RM of Porcupine Plain declared itself a disaster area after heavy rain made two bridges and three primary grid roads impassable.
A crew of eight men are at work full-time on repairs in the district, said RM administrator Margit Kvisle.
The roads had water running over them, some for up to 400 metres, while flooding punched holes in two bridges and forced the rerouting of school buses.
Kvisle expected the repair bill to exceed $27,000, the minimum amount the RM requires to file a disaster program claim.
“It’s pretty significant damage,” said Kvisle, who added the area received 300 millimetres of rain in less than three weeks, with most coming during the Sept. 9 storm.
Crops are sitting in wet fields, some swathed canola was washed away by floods and standing crop could end up rotting before it can be cut, she said.
“It’s going to be a hard harvest and what’s left won’t be high quality,” Kvisle added.
“It’s not looking good in the RM.”
The promise of warm, dry weather on the Prairies this week was a hopeful sign for Ted Smith, a rancher at Pincher Creek, Alta.
Smith, the reeve of the municipal district, said a warm wind blowing Sept. 19 was drying fields.
The area received 175 mm in one day, with snow reported at higher elevations, causing power outages and forcing the district to declare a local state of emergency, he said.
Temporary power services have been restored while crews work on repairs.
Feed in fields
Smith, who grows feed for his livestock, has not been able to get into his wet fields to pick up hay bales. He noted excess rain in June downgraded his crop quality.
While recent rain caused one local field of wheat to lodge, Smith said such rainfall is hardly typical for the often dry, windy foothills.
“It tends to be if we ever get this country wet, it seems to stay wet,” he said.
Rain was also no stranger to Manitoba this year, where harvesting was in full swing in western zones and wrapping up in eastern regions last week.
