REGINA – The situation isn’t urgent yet, but homeowners along Katepwa Lake aren’t taking any chances.
“I’m just putting out a few sandbags and some filter cloth, just for erosion,” said Ross Downes, who owns waterfront property on the lake.
Downes remembers the 2011 flood very clearly and believes the community is much better prepared this time around.
“Really good cooperation and a lot of volunteers,” Downes added.
The efforts have been led by the District of Katepwa, which started its planning process in January.
“We’ve been in the snow and making sandbags in the snow,” said Warren Bobbee, the Emergency Management Consultant for the District of Katepwa. “We’ve had wind and some warm weather, now the ticks are out and people are wearing suntan lotion. What doesn’t kill us just makes us stronger!”
Bobbee says barriers have been built high enough to protect against the water levels seen in 2011. On Tuesday, the Water Security Agency lowered its flood forecast for the lake to below that level, so Bobbee’s confident water shouldn’t be an issue.
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“My EMO team is stepping back and seeing what our plans are,” Bobbee said, “and seeing what two feet of rise of water and two feet of wave action (will do) and just checking our plan.”
The story is much the same upstream in the resort village of B-Say-Tah on Echo Lake, where residents are taking the hard lessons learned in 2011 and putting them to use.
“I jokingly say I’ve got a PhD in sandbagging, and I never wanted to use that degree again,” said B-Say-Tah resident Ken Sunquist, who saw two homes completely destroyed by water and ice in 2011.
That year the community was late in building up sandbag walls, and was caught off guard when water came from different directions.
“Our biggest problem is we were sandbagging in the front, and we looked out the back window and the water came right over across the beach,” added Sunquist. “I had about three feet of water here in the backyard.”
This year residents along the chain of lakes in the Qu’Appelle Valley are confident they’re better prepared. Now all they can do is wait and hope their best laid plans don’t wash away.
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