Wayne Collins tends to look on the bright side. Although his Manitoba municipality was damaged by flooding this month, he said there was a silver lining in the clouds that unleashed the torrent of rain.
“At least we’ll have pasture for the cattle,” said Collins, reeve for the western Rural Municipality of Russell. “All spring it was dry here.”
That doesn’t mean Collins is happy about the flood damage, however. The reeve said some municipal roads and culverts were washed out by the floods, which occurred the first weekend in July. Water also pooled in low areas of fields.
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More than 10 centimetres of rain hit the Russell area during a 24-hour period. That came after more than a week of wet weather that dumped 36 centimetres of rain.
The RM will apply for disaster assistance from the province to help repair damaged roads and culverts, Collins said. He believes it will take most of the summer to complete the repairs.
“If you can tell me what the weather will be, I can tell you how soon we can fix it,” he said during an interview. “It’s drying out some, but there’s still a lot of
water that has to get to the river system.”
The town of Russell didn’t dodge the flood damage either. Basements were flooded in many homes and some residents had to contend with backed-up sewers.
Due to the extent of damages, the town declared itself a disaster area.
The Manitoba Emergency Management Organization is being called on to assess the damage. The town hopes to recoup the thousands of dollars it spent renting heavy equipment and paying staff to work the weekend of the flood.
Torrential rain swept through neighboring communities as well. Basements were flooded at the village of Silverton east of Russell, and several lightning strikes were reported.
At a farm near Silverton, a herd of cattle became stranded on an island after a creek turned into a river. Greg and Murray Cochrane, along with a hired hand, saddled their horses and went to the rescue.
Although the depth of the water forced the horses to swim, the Cochranes managed to herd the cattle back to safe ground.
“It was a lot of water in a real hurry,” Greg said. “It came so fast, so quick, there was nothing to do but hang on for the ride.”
Although the excess rain also damaged crops in his area, Cochrane said: “You can’t grow a crop in a desert, so we’re not going to begrudge it at all.”
“You can’t grow a crop in a desert, so we’re not going to begrudge it at all.”
