Rosthern flood waters subsiding after state of emergency declared

They placed large berms along the sides of the creek that runs through the south end of the town.

The berms did their job, said Lerat, protecting houses and directing water away from the town’s sewage plant and another pump station, both of which sit very close to the creek.

Those pump stations were operating at capacity during the peak of the flood, said Lerat, “Our lift station started to pump at capacity so we had to get extra pumps hauled in so that we didn’t get everyone’s basement covered in sewage,” said Lerat.

The Prince Albert Fire Department brought three pumps to the town in order help with the situation.

On Monday afternoon, the creek was still running high and fast over Fourth Avenue which it usually travels underneath. A large berm was built right across the road to protect the neighbourhood and will remain in place for several days.

The other berms will be left in place forever, a move recommended by the Water Security Agency. “We’re actually going to keep them up and they’re going to become a permanent fixture in the town,” said Lerat.

According to Lerat, the road’s structure has actually been undermined by the powerful surge of water. It will be closed for the foreseeable future until its foundation can be repaired.

With the flood waters receding, emergency officials left Rosthern on Monday but the state of emergency will remain for another several weeks.

“That emergency declaration will be in effect in the town for a week and in the RM they’re going to have it for at least two weeks,” she said.

As of Monday, 27 roads had been affected by water. It is unknown how many houses have been affected but several businesses along Highway 312, north of the town of Rosthern were dealing with flooding.

During a Monday morning conference call, the Water Security Agency`s Patrick Boyle said the flooding in Rosthern is a localized issue.

“It`s similar to Duck Lake and Blaine Lake where they`re having some problems from local tributaries and inflows.”

He said those are local tributaries that can cause over-topping of roads. “And you see things get washed out. But we`re watching that and working with (the) Ministry of Highways.”

The employees at Valley Custom Machining built a berm around the backside of their main building two weeks ago.

“We’ve got some pumps installed around the back side and the west side as well that are pumping 24 hours a day and so far they seem to be keeping up,” said lead machinist Sheri Hodgson.

She said she saw emergency crews were working hard over the weekend, “They worked really hard all day Saturday, they had dump trucks going constantly building the berm across the Southern edge of town and I think that seems to have helped.”

Further west on Highway 312, Wendland Ag. Services Ltd. hadn’t prepared at all but were lucky, “So far we’ve been pretty fortunate not to have any damage but it looks like the worst is over,” said Matthew Larochelle.

“It came within a few inches of our buildings but we’ve been fortunate, nothing inside,” he said.

sleslie@panow.com

On Twitter: @_seanleslie

by Sean Leslie

Rosthern flood waters subsiding after state of emergency declared

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