ManitobaThe Municipality of Ethelbert in western Manitoba is under a local state of emergency that was declared to help clean up the damage left by a downpour that flooded crops and left roads submerged underwater. Ethelbert declares state of emergency, plans road resurfacing, after 107 mm of rainEnvironment and Climate Change Canada says about 107 millimetres of rain fell on the Municipality of Ethelbert throughout Monday and into Tuesday morning. (Submitted by Jessa McNabb/Inter-Mountain Watershed District)A community in western Manitoba is under a local state of emergency that was declared to help clean up the damage left by a downpour that flooded crops and left roads submerged underwater.House basements flooded in the municipality of Ethelbert after a low-pressure system rolled into central Manitoba bringing thunderstorms throughout Monday and into Tuesday. Ethelbert — located about 300 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — received about 107 millimetres of rain at the start of the week, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.The municipality declared a local state of emergency on Tuesday to help with cleanup as employees continue assessing the damage from the storm, said Richard Evans, the community’s emergency measures co-ordinator.A low-pressure system rolled into central Manitoba, bringing thunderstorms at the start of the week that inundated this canola field in the municipality of Ethelbert. (Submitted by Jessa McNabb/Inter-Mountain Watershed District)”The waters have receded in town but the creek is still quite high and that might be affecting roads outside of town,” Evans said. A stretch of about eight kilometres in the municipality had overland flooding, but Evans said the bulk of the damage was mostly around Shanty Creek, a stream that runs through Ethelbert.The stream burst its banks after the rain raised its water level from two to eight feet during the storm, spilling into the most-populated area of the municipality. Emergency measures co-ordinator Richard Evans said the community’s creek burst its banks after the rain, washing onto roads and into basements. (Submitted by Jessa McNabb/Inter-Mountain Watershed District)The storm washed out gardens and flooded the basement of at least four houses, Evans said. Some of the shoulders on the highways that run through the municipality were also flooded. Evans said the storm washed away the gravel, so those and several other roads outside Ethelbert will need to be resurfaced.”That’s the sort of thing that happens around here when we have this sudden flooding. But this is just extreme and unexpected,” Evans said. According to the Statistics Canada, from 2021 about 650 people lived in the municipality. Round bales plugged culvertsThe downpour flooded fields and homes in the outskirts of Ethelbert as well. Kevin Boese, a cattle farmer who lives about eight kilometres west of town, said he hauled two truckloads of damaged objects to the dumpster after his basement was flooded.”We’ve got a bunch of squirrel cage fans and some big fans going in right now to dry it all out,” he told CBC on Wednesday afternoon. “Our pumps never failed. They just literally couldn’t keep up.”On Monday evening, Boese emptied one of his farm’s rain gauges after it had filled to about 114 millimetres. By Tuesday morning, just a few hours later, he said the downpour had already filled the gauge back up to 88 millimetres. As he went to check on his cattle before sunrise that morning, he was forced to turn around because water was already running over the road and it was unsafe for him to continue driving. The creek had also overflowed and some two-metre round bales were floating down a ditch, plugging culverts. Kevin Boese, an Ethelbert cattle farmer who lives about eight kilometres west of town, says round bales were floating down a ditch and plugging its culverts during the flooding. (Submitted by Jessa McNabb/Inter-Mountain Watershed District)Boese said this is the first large flooding since Ethelbert was hammered with a spring storm in 2022 that washed out most of the beaver dams — worsening Monday’s deluge as more water gushed faster down the creek and downhill from the Duck Mountains.”Now the water … comes out of there with force,” he said. The rancher said his neighbour’s canola swaths floated out of the field and were washed out onto the road. The Municipality of Ethelbert on Tuesday declared a local state of emergency to help with cleanup as municipal employees continue assessing the damage from the storm. (Submitted by Jessa McNabb/Inter-Mountain Watershed District)”It’s going to be a couple of weeks before a lot of guys are going to be able to get on to their crop, onto their fields to look after those crops. It’s very saturated,” he said. Environment Canada said other parts of central Manitoba received large amounts of rain at the start of the week, with a swath south of Dauphin getting about 90 millimetres. To the west of the city, a large swath reported between 50 to 70 millimetres throughout Monday and into Tuesday. “It’s normal to receive thunderstorms in September … and to see systems moving through,” said Christy Climenhaga, a scientist at the Crown agency. “We did see a lot of moisture in the area, which is maybe not quite as common.”Environment and Climate Change Canada said there could be more wet weather and cloud cover with the risk of some showers in central Manitoba over the coming days, but the weather agency is not expecting another weather system will sweep the region before the end of the week. ABOUT THE AUTHORSantiago Arias Orozco is a journalist with CBC Manitoba currently based in Winnipeg. He previously worked for CBC Toronto and the Toronto Star. You can reach him at santiago.arias.orozco@cbc.ca.With files from Susan Magas
Western Manitoba municipality mopping up after downpour floods crops, roads, basements
