Communities were ravaged by rising flood waters. Homes were destroyed. Highways were torn apart.
There is no doubt 2011 will be forever remembered for the floods that devastated much of Saskatchewan.
“It was record breaking and without precedent,” Dale Hjertas from the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority said. “It was a year unlike any other.”
In 2010, several areas in the province experienced what was referred to as 100 year floods, but nothing could prepare residents for what spring and summer 2011 brought. From communities like Swift Current in April to Weyburn, Red Earth Cree Nation and Roche Percee in early summer, very few areas of the province were spared Mother Nature’s wrath.
Hjertas says flooding like this does not happen without a lot of contributing factors.
“It started in 2010 with a very wet summer, and continued into a wet fall,” Hjertas explained. “By this time last winter we already had a lot of snow. In many areas it was cold until mid-April, then all of a sudden it went hot and a lot of snow melted in about two days. Then the fourth thing, it wouldn’t stop raining.
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“There was no storage capacity in the landscape.”
The water washed away a lot of the province’s money. Over $240M went towards disaster assistance claims, highway repairs and farmers aid. That number will be offset by $109M from the federal government.
Months later some communities are still reeling from the flooding, and some are preparing for what could be another wet spring and summer.
“There are several communities that still have wet conditions,” Hjertas said. “Work was going on during the summer, and we’re still getting ready for next spring’s flood.”
Among the communities, are Corman Park near Saskatoon, and Lang and Lampman in the province’s southeast. In Corman Park a new drainage system is being developed. In Lampman, crews are constructing berms and a lift station to help drain the water still sitting on the town’s door step.
While some towns are still at risk in 2012, Hjertas says the long-term forecast suggests most of the province may be out of the woods.
“It appears to be what we call a La Nina year, which generally doesn’t give us a lot of snow,” he said. “It’s not the type of year that generally produces a big flood.”
Those are words that mean everything to many in Saskatchewan who hope they will not have to deal with flooding again in the near future.
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