The wet weather that has soaked much of the farmland in eastern Saskatchewan has not only affected pedigreed seed production. It’s also affected pedigreed seed offices.
Dave Akister, executive director of the Saskatchewan Seed Growers Association, said the administrative offices of the SSGA were completed waterlogged this month when a sudden downpour flooded homes, streets and commercial buildings in Yorkton, Sask.
Akister worked throughout the night on July 1 to salvage files and equipment from the SSGA’s downtown office.
Shortly after the downpour began, water started pouring in.
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By the time Akister left, the entire office was flooded. The next task is sorting through salvaged material to see what was lost.
“We had pretty good backup systems in place so electronically we’re probably fine,” he said.
“It’s the hard copy stuff that’s probably going to be an issue. There’s virtually nothing there right now. Our office and others there (have been) completely gutted.”
Akister said families and business owners in Yorkton are scrambling to put their lives back together after the Canada Day storm.
Reports vary but it is believed 100 to 150 milllimetres of rain fell in some parts of the city within a few hours.
Cleanup and reconstruction efforts are well underway but a shortage of construction crews is delaying the recovery effort.
“Business interruption is one thing but there are families here who have lost everything … so you have to keep putting things into perspective,” Akister said.
Calls to the SSGA are being forwarded to a temporary line while office space is repaired.
“We’re going to be back and operational as soon as possible,” Akister said.
“Probably by July 15 we’ll have (an office), just where and what it looks like, I’m not sure at this point.
“As you can appreciate, anything from mini storage to office space are at an absolute premium in this town.”
