EASTEND, Sask. – Rest was a seldom enjoyed luxury last week for Terry Haggart. What little she got was stolen on a fold-out couch in the corner of the city council chambers. As mayor of this community in the southwestern corner of the province, flood watch is her responsibility.
In this normally parched region, the Frenchman River normally winds its way through the town of about 650 as little more than a creek most of the year. But this spring it has swollen beyond its banks.
“Over at Jack’s (coffee shop) the water rose a foot yesterday afternoon, and dropped 18 inches overnight,” said Roger Humphrey, of the federal government’s Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration. Humphrey controls the water flow through the upstream dam.
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Jack’s is high and dry and more than three blocks from the nearest flood water, but one of the most demanding parts of the mayor’s job bubbles to the surface here. Rumors.
Bombarded with questions
The phones in the council chambers were busy day and night with calls asking if it was time to leave town, if the water supply was safe and how long it would be until the water receded.
These questions were few compared to other calls from outside the region, from worried relatives who heard rumors the town had been evacuated. There were calls from other regional governments offering assistance after they heard the dam had collapsed.
Other callers offered dubious reconnaissance. Some heard more water was coming in from the west, or that ranches upstream were flooded and a torrent was headed toward the town.
They were rumors, but the threat was real. The sewers were pumped continually, the water treatment plant was surrounded by sandbags and the river threatened it from 20 metres away, some basements in town are wet and water flows across the main street in places.
“You can’t predict the water. You can only try to manage it and react. And reassure people and warn them when it is time to leave. And try to control the rumors,” said the mayor.
