“I’ve never seen it like this, just weird,” said Sam Klassen.
That’s one way to describe what happened in Steinbach Wednesday morning. A torrential downpour caused a flash flood dropping up to 120 millimeters of rain in just an hour and a half.
From the air, Global’s Skyview1, captured the struggle motorists faced, many streets looked more like small creeks.
“I’ve never seen so much water on our roads before ever,” said Jasmine Meilliur. “There was water everywhere, everyone was going super slow there were cars stalled.”
McDonald’s had to close due to water inside and a number of residents woke up to flooded basements.
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“Water was just pouring into our house,” said Klassen. “So I quickly grabbed a bucket and ran outside.”
Klassen’s backyard had a foot of water and it was quickly flowing straight into his basement.
“There was water about this high, all the way up to the house and back by the drainage area it was up to my waist.”
For hours, the city’s drainage system struggled to keep up.
“The drains were working at capacity or above,” said Denis Vassart, the Emergency Measures Coordinator. “If you get between three and five inches of rain in an hour and a half instead of over three days, it’s a little overwhelming.”
Environment Canada called this system unusual and strange because it just hovered over the City of Steinbach. Depending where you were you saw different amounts of rain. At the airport they got 60 millimeters, in Steinbach they saw 80 millimeters and the south park of the city had 120 millimeters.
While the clean up has begun, residents are left with a new respect for mother nature.
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