MOOSOMIN – This mid-week’s rainfall has forced the town of Moosomin to file another Provincial Disaster Assistance Program claim – its third this season.
“Regardless, I think our deductible is something like $80,000. So even if we had to declare it three times because it’s three independent times, you’re talking a quarter of a million dollars,” said Mayor Larry Tomlinson.
The town received about 100 mm of rainfall between Wednesday night and Thursday morning. Tomlinson said damage to the town’s infrastructure could cost as much as $1 million.
“It’s been terrible,” said Tomlinson.
Rain also turned the site of a future motel into a mud pit.
“It’s a big development to the town – it’s major,” said Tomlinson of the three-storey building, parts of which were still under a couple of feet of water Saturday morning.
About half of the town’s 1,200 homes have endured flooding damage of some sort over the past few months.
“I woke up at three in the morning and I heard this waterfall, and I stopped and looked, and it was coming out of the toilet,” said homeowner Ken Giesbrecht, as he showed the damage the water did to his basement.
Giesbrecht has lived in his home for four years and has never experience flooding so severe.
The sewer water filled the rooms fast, coming up over three feet high on Thuesday. On Saturday, the water had mostly evaporated, though a couple of litres stagnated in his dryer.
The freezer wasn’t spared either.
“It was floating here, and it tipped over and all my food was out,” said Giesbrecht.
Cindy and Trevor Green, neighbors of Giesbrecht, have lived in their home for two years. They were planning on replacing their basement flooring this weekend to fix the damage previous storms this season have caused. Instead, they’re being forced to live in a hotel due to basement flooding.
“We like the town. That’s why we bought the house here and we didn’t go to another town. We grew up here all our lives. It’s tough because you really don’t want to be here anymore. That’s what it’s come to, you don’t,” said Trevor Green.
The town is also burdened by the strain being put on plumbing, among other issues.
Giesbrecht said the backlog means it will take until November to get a new furnace.
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