The flooding in Carrot River on Monday. Photo courtesy Shelly White, Facebook.
Four Saskatchewan communities have now declared states of emergency because of flash flooding and heavy rain warnings remain in effect for about a dozen communities.
Estevan in the southeast, as well as Carrot River, Arborfield and the RM of Arborfield in east central Saskatchewan are dealing with flooded basements as well as some evacuations.
In Estevan a trailer court had to be evacuated.
The largest evacuation was in the community of Arborfield where 37 residents of a long term care home had to head for higher ground when flood waters approached.
Health department spokesman Merv Tippe says it was a precautionary move.
“It was evacuated last night,” he said. Not due to water being in the facility but water encroaching on the facility which made it advantageous to move the residents out of there just in case.”
Clean up is well underway in Estevan and Carrot River, but it will take a while. Deputy commissioner of Emergency planning, Mieka Cleary says getting rid of the flood water is just the beginning.
“Once the rain ends, it is just the beginning of the clean up and recovery which can be a very long process depending on the types of damages that have occurred so that is why we activated our recovery branch,” she said.
The recovery branch involves a number of government departments and agencies that work together to help residents deal with damage and claims assessments. There is some good news in the forecast, the worst appears to be over and the storm systems should be moving east to Manitoba by tomorrow.
Highways closed
It’s not just communities struggling with the rainfall – commuters are as well.
On Tuesday, the province is saying there are seven different roads dealing with flooded roadways or washed out culverts in the north-east and east central region.
This includes Highway 55 from the junction of Highway 9 to Shoal Lake Access, where there’s a washout. Highway 9 from Ruby Lake Access to 44 kilometres north of the Highway 55 junction and Highway 123 from Cumberland House to the border have been closed due to flooding.
Highway 23 from Carrot River to Arborfield is closed.
The extent of damage on these regions are not yet confirmed but crew are monitoring to see if any short and long-term of repairs will be required.