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Residents in a western Manitoba town are stuck waiting for waters to recede before they can begin cleaning up from a second historic flood in a month.
Swan River Mayor Lance Jacobson said that while water levels looked to have dropped by about 30 centimetres since Wednesday’s flood, there’s still a couple of metres to go in places.
He said there’s little the upwards of 200 households that were forced to flee their homes can do now but wait.
“People that are flooded, they’re just sitting coiled up like a spring, waiting to get what they need to get done, and dealing with the grief of all that, and that’s very difficult,” Jacobson said.
He said he wishes there’s more he could do.
“It’s very heart-wrenching, you know, when you walk up to somebody and you see that face, and people are just on the verge of breaking down, and you feel that and you want to do the same thing yourself.”
While an evacuation order is still in place for parts of town, some residents have made quick trips back to their homes to rescue pets and grab essentials because they had to leave so quickly, he said.
Western Manitoba was hit by heavy rains and flooding earlier this week that closed more than 60 highways in the province.
The washed-out roads include all four routes out of Duck Mountain Provincial Park, forcing some 200 campers to shelter in place. The province said the roads remain out.
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Flooding also knocked out power to the Dauphin Regional Health Centre and emergency department, a major service hub that remained closed on Friday with no timeline on its reopening.
Waters receded quickly in Dauphin, but will take much longer in Swan River because of the flat drainage to the east, and major buildup of water upstream to the west, said Jacobson.
“There’s such a huge amount of water that’s stalled.”
The mayor said he was disappointed he hadn’t heard from the federal government, given the double wallop that hit the region.
Swan River was also hit by flooding on June 8, and repairs, such as to the CN Rail line, were almost done before this week’s storm arrived.
“We were getting close to reopening the line and, and now they are washed out and they’ve got to start all over again,” said Jacobson.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew put in a request for federal assistance on Wednesday and said Thursday that discussions were ongoing.
A spokesperson for Eleanor Olszewski, federal minister of emergency management, said Friday that some kind of personnel deployment was planned but that details were still being finalized.
Jacobson said he’s eager for assistance, but it’s going to take a very long time to recover.
“The light at the end of the tunnel is very far away.”
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