Saskatchewan village still cleaning up after flash flood, but bride and groom manage to say ‘I do’ among the chaos
ELFROS, Sask. — Stella Stephanson was getting ready for her son Scott’s wedding, scheduled for that evening in the Elfros Union Church with a reception to follow in the community hall.
Family members had already gathered at her house and more were expected to arrive as the day unfolded.
At around noon that day, July 23, a massive cloud formation moved in and within minutes, water was rushing down the street in front of Stephanson’s house.
Her son, Stuart, grabbed a spade and trenched the water away from the house.
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“It was just a vicious storm with really high winds and rain,” said Stephanson.
“From the kitchen window, you couldn’t see to the back alley; it was just a sheet of water. Everything was water. Water was halfway up the driveway and in the front, it was up to the window wells.”
Stuart managed to keep the storm water away, and not a drop flowed into the tidy little bungalow. But before long, he had to turn his attention to the inside of the house because the sewer was backing up In the downstairs bathroom.
The Stephansons were among the residents of Elfros who were hit by a flash flood last month.
Environment Canada reported 69 millimetres of rain in Wadena, north of Elfros, on July 23-24, while the Wadena Fire Department reported 100 to 150 mm in the area.
A month later, Stephanson still has to make a decision about her damaged basement suite. Her family pitched in and within a few days the floor covering had been removed, as well as the bottom part of the dry wall and everything else that had been affected.
The cleaning is done, but much work is still needed to restore the suite to its pre-flood state. Stephanson is not sure if she’ll completely restore it.
The following week, officials from the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program (PDAP) set up a recovery centre at the rural municipality office. Residents who have been declined insurance benefits can make a claim for assistance through PDAP.
Village administrator Tina Douglas said the PDAP covers only “essential” property, so basement family rooms and spare bedrooms in the basements of houses where regular bedrooms exist upstairs are not covered. However, a revenue suite might be covered.
Douglas said residents are bouncing back from the hardship, but a lot depends on what happens next.
“If PDAP doesn’t cover the damage, the people who have a tragic loss may have to cover that loss out of their own pockets and they may not necessarily have the money.”
She said the village was in chaos the night of the rain.
“When I arrived, at about 2 p.m. driving in from Main Street, water was gushing down the street. I pulled up at the corner, looked towards the village office and saw a lake.”
At that time, water was flowing into the main levels of at least two houses and another home had become an island, surrounded by water.
The village council soon declared a state of emergency, which allowed various levels of government to enact special powers to deal with the situation.
The village then contacted Emergency Measures, but its resources were stretched by a Husky oil spill into the North Saskatchewan River.
However, local volunteers jumped into action. Two farmers and their sons brought in tractors and 16-inch pumps to divert water over the railway bed north of the community. They worked through the night to help keep water levels down.
Douglas said by morning all that remained of the water that had covered the village to a height of about one metre in places were a few puddles.
Emergency Measures arrived around 11:30 a.m. with six four-inch pumps and 12 sump pumps. Volunteers set to work pumping out basements and installing sump pumps.
Gary Folster, Elfros water plant operator, said only after they managed to pump most of the water away was it possible to get the lift station running.
The sewer lines run by gravity to the lift station at the northeast end of the village, where sewage is then pumped north about half a kilometre to a lagoon.
“Once the water subsided, we went in with pumps and started pumping the lift station,” he said.
And the wedding? It went off right on schedule but with some adjustments.
Family pictures scheduled for the park were first moved to the hall and eventually cancelled.
Two families coming from Saskatoon were stopped at Dafoe where water was flowing over the road.
A family coming from Tisdale continued on after picking up a wet-dry vacuum in Wadena. But the church and the hall were high and dry and the wedding went ahead.
“There was hootin’ and hollerin’ and clapping,” Stephanson said.
“It was a very happy occasion in spite of everything.”
