Lake Manitoba residents remember flood that devastated homes and cottages

Lake Manitoba was spilling over in the spring of 2011, flooding into backyards and homes.

Claudette Rainville remembers seeing a trickle of water turn into a wave onto the backyard of their permanent home at Sandpiper Beach.

“All of a sudden, all hell broke lose. It was just like chaos. Everything that wasn’t tied down was floating, flower pots, you name it was just going by between our houses,” she said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "All of a sudden, all hell broke lose. It was just like chaos. Everything that wasn't tied down was floating, flower pots, you name it was just going by between our houses," she said.

Rainville said she and her husband Emmanuel escaped with just the clothes on their backs, rushing to escape the rising water.

“We had our deck chairs and stuff that all went into the marsh,” Emmanuel said. “When we came back, my garage was empty, it was all in the marsh. The freezer, fridges, unbelievable a freezer full of food — all in the marsh.”

The couple spent two years between hotels and an apartment in Winnipeg before they could return home.

They also tried to flood-proof their property and lifted their home six-feet higher than it was before.

“They lifted the whole house and the garage just gradually an inch at a time, just going up very slowly to the point of the house being six feet higher. Not a crack in the house. Everything was done perfectly,” Emmanuel said.

But the couple said the flooding has changed their home forever.

“The first time we came back, we couldn’t believe the devastation,” Claudette said. “Huge trees, they just toppled over. They were washed out, eroded and you came back to just devastation.”

The federal and provincial governments are planning to spend up to $540 million dollars for new flood management for Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin outlet channels after severe flooding in 2011 and 2014 resulted in extensive damage to area homes and businesses.

The project announced Monday will consist of building two 23-kilometre-long diversion channels.

The project is expected to be completed in 2024 or 2025 at the earliest, that’s still a long time to wait for residents who have to worry every spring about rising waters.

“Once the channel is in there, and an equal amount of is water coming in and out, then we got no more worries and we’re good,” Emmanuel said.

The governments identified the channels project as a major priority and said the access road to Lake St. Martin is underway, with the rest of the work scheduled to begin in fall 2019 at the earliest.