It rained for three days straight, washing out roads, turning farmers’ fields into lakes and flooding basements.
“I just looked up and said you’re kidding me, come on this is enough,” said Pat Westfall who lives on a grain farm south of Thornhill.
The tiny community southwest of Morden was hit the hardest. Area farmers measured 200 millimeters of rain over the long weekend.
“That’s about eight weeks worth over the summer normally that would be nice but not all at once,” said Harvey Westfall.
Two hundred acres of Harvey and Pat Westfall’s grain field are still under water. Drains have been working at capacity but the water is receding only very slowly.
Early Tuesday Morning it rained again. Water crept close to their home and into their basement. Pat’s been constantly sweeping water into a drain, but it keeps on coming.
“You usually don’t expect an 8 inch rain anytime much less right after the snow melt,” said R.M. Of Stanley Reeve Art Petkau, “yeah, this is very unusual.”
The Rural Municipality of Stanley is still assessing the damage. Water is running over roads in about 30 areas But the greatest impact will be on farmers.
“All this land here you see under water, in most years they’d be done seeding by now,” said Petkau.
Residents say it’ll take some time for the water to drain, and once it does, it’ll be weeks before farmers to can get onto their muddy fields to plant their crops.
“Now it’ll be almost June before we get back on the field if it doesn’t rain again,” said Westfall.
Westfall says they need weeks of hot dry weather but until then all he can do is wait.
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