The Town of Minnedosa and the surrounding RM of Minto-Odanah have declared states of emergency after being hammered with heavy rain.
The communities are dealing with washed-out roads, flooded home basements and businesses that have been forced to close.
Volunteers in the town of Minnedosa were out delivering sandbags until 2 a.m. early on Canada Day.
Minnedosa Mayor Pat Skatch says there’s an evacuation site set up at the community hall.
“We’re now in the assessment mode of what is the damage that’s happened and what do we have to do to get our community back to a semi-normal state?”
Rain fell on the community into Canada Day and now even the Minnedosa Cemetery has been added to the long list of affected areas.
Multiple gravesites have caved in due to the excessive moisture, scattered throughout the cemetery.
The town of Minnedosa says they’re aware of the problem, but aren’t able to fix the gravesites just yet as the gravel road leading to the cemetery is too soft to drive equipment on.
“What you’re looking at is a grave of a loved one, that is very hard for any individual to be looking at — especially with what’s happening,” Skatch said.
“When it’s a fairly new grave, with the amount of water we’ve had there’s settling on the soil on the gravesite and we will repair it.”
She didn’t give a timeline for when the repairs would happen by but says it’s a waiting game with the weather.
Environment Canada is forecasting more rain for the area Thursday evening, and for the town of Minnedosa.
Comments