The water came quickly, receded almost as fast, and left in its wake a path of destruction, which included a long list of provincial infrastructure, municipal assets and private property.
Across the Parkland people woke up on Canada Day to swollen rivers and creeks, overland flooding and flooded basements, courtesy of a storm cell, which dropped from 120 millimetres to more than 150 millimetres of rain across the region.
Dauphin city manager Sharla Griffiths said leading up to Canada Day, municipal officials began monitoring the situation Sunday night and into Monday before problems started arising Tuesday morning.
“Tuesday morning, I started getting calls from our utility guys saying, ‘Hey, things are all functioning, but we just can’t keep up, the lift station pumps can’t keep up, and there’s water in the streets.’ So we started monitoring,” Griffiths said, adding throughout the day, Tuesday, there was water at some intersections, but things were still manageable.
It was not until the early morning hours of Wednesday that the seriousness of the situation became evident, when the Vermillion River spilled over its banks between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m.
“I saw the first email come through with some photos at 2 a.m. and it said things are happening in Dauphin,” Griffiths said, adding throughout the timeline officials were holding discussions about the situation and developing a plan of action.
All in all, Griffiths is pleased with the efforts of municipal staff in the face of unprecedented challenges presented by the flood.
“We had people boots on the ground checking things out, doing what we could and when the sun came up on the morning of the first we were inundated with water,” she said.
“Our staff, everybody rolled up their sleeves, pitched in, and did what they needed to do. Mayor and council have been super supportive and there right beside us.
“So the organization functioned as it should in this type of situation.”
Among the damage caused by that water was extensive flooding in the basement of Dauphin Regional Health Centre, which knocked out power and forced an evacuation of the facility, which saw 54 patients transferred to other hospitals across the province
In a virtual press conference Thursday, Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said every effort to provide some level of care locally is being made, while the extent of the damage to the facility is determined and repairs are made.
“We are providing a triage clinic based out of Dauphin and we do have the mobile clinic set up. We’ve also set up a more, sort of, permanent structure within the Dauphin Regional Health Center community health services building, which is adjacent to the hospital, where patients can be quickly assessed if they’re not sure if their concern is emergent. They would be transported to the nearest appropriate emergency department from there, or treated for minor injuries and illnesses there,” Slate said, adding employees throughout the system have stepped up to ensure some continuity of care.
“The physicians from the Dauphin clinic are providing that service and they are also providing support to the Ste. Rose Emergency Department, as well.”
While people are already asking when the hospital will reopen, Slate said it is far to early to tell. The priority is to pump water from the basement, restore power and HVAC and then assess the damage.
“We are in conversations with our incident command structure provincially, already thinking about reopening. That’s definitely front of mind. We need to start planning accordingly,” Slate said, adding operations at both Dauphin personal care homes were uninterrupted by the flooding.
“Given the significance of the flooding and the challenges of pumping out the water, and in view of the ongoing flooding situation, it’s challenging to give a timeline at this time.
“We are having our insurer engage with a restoration company to assess the damage and we’ll have a better idea in the coming days of the timeline on that.”
As damages at the DRHC and across the region become more apparent, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew, who was in town Thursday to assess the situation, wants life in the Parkland to get back to normal as quickly as possible.
To that end Kinew announced a $5 million cash advance program through disaster financial assistance to expedite repairs.
“The idea behind this $5 million is we know on the provincial side there’s a ton of roads and bridges that are going to need to be repaired. So the need at the municipal side is going to be there, as well,” Kinew said.
“We don’t want any resource or financial question to get in the way of getting people back to normal. So that’s why we want to work together collaboratively.”
In the city, while there is extensive damage to personal property, municipal assets seem to have weathered the storm quite well, mayor David Bosiak said.
“Our northeast end of town was most severely impacted, because it’s the lowest end of our community. So we still have some basement flooding in some areas and sewer backups (Thursday). But our reports this morning were that most of them have been cleaned out. It’s just a matter now of remediating and cleaning some seepage in a few areas of the community,” Bosiak said.
“Right now we basically believe that we have everything under our own control. We’ve asked for a very modest amount from the province as cash coverage, before we get into the disaster financial assistance stage of things, but I think we’re okay,”
It is a different story in the Rural Municipality of Dauphin. With more then 500 miles of roads, it will take some time to get a handle on the situation, reeve Ernie Sirski said.
Initial reports are that there are more than 200 wash outs, but Sirski expects that number to increase significantly.
“We don’t know the extent of damages yet. I mean, we’ve got people that are landlocked, people that cannot get out of their houses right now. So we have to make sure that, first of all, they’re safe. We’re doing whatever we can to make sure that people can get access, make sure that they’re safe,” Sirski said.
“We've been told that we can access $500,000 from the province as of today to help with fixing up our roads and we thank the province for their contribution.”
As repairs begin, Kinew added consideration will be given to the effects of climate change, which has increased the number and frequency of severe storms.
“Part of what we’re telling our municipal partners, we’re telling all Manitobans is that as we go into the disaster financial assistance stage, we want to build resilient infrastructure. So, it’s not just about building back the same thing that we had before. Now that we’ve seen what can happen with a changing climate, we need to build infrastructure that’s going to meet that need,” he said.
“We have got to be resilient as people. We also have to make sure that our infrastructure is resilient, too, and as we roll out this DFA program, we want the municipal partners to know that it’s not just about restoring what was there. It’s about building roads and culverts and other pieces of infrastructure, so that we can handle an event like this in the future. God forbid, but we’ve got to prepare.”
As the cleanup continues, people are encouraged to check municipal websites and social media for information about available resources,
When it comes to health care, updates can be found on the PMH website at prairiemountainhealth.ca, or across their social media platforms.
“We strongly encourage people to call 911 as they normally should in the event of any situation or if they’re not sure about their medical circumstance,” Slate said.
“We have physicians and nurses who can do a primary assessment and we would rely on our EMS partners to transfer patients to the nearest and most appropriate emergency department. based on the patient’s care needs.”
For non-urgent matters, Dauphin and area residents are encouraged to call Health Links toll-free at 1-888-315-9257.