Trevor Cowie has been boating in Gimli for 22 years and says he’s never seen anything like what he woke up to Sunday morning.
“Everything was under water when I came up,” Cowie who is the Harbour Master at the Gimli Harbour Authority told Global News. “Our docks, some of the ramps were even vertical.”
“I was told by several people that this is very historic and that some people haven’t seen this level of water since 1967.”
With the water levels already being so high, the change in wind direction pushed the water from the north basin into the south basin on Lake Winnipeg, he says.
“The waves were essentially breaking on my office, which is backed onto the pier,” he said. “Our centre pier, which is also called fisherman’s pier was under about six inches of water.”
Gimli Beach is adjacent to that main pier. The water was so high it was crashing on to the main pier he says.
“All the river rock and everything else was sitting on the main pier.”
Cowie says thankfully there wasn’t much damage to the habour. The docks and ramps are built with sliding mechanisms so they can rise and fall with the changing water levels.
As for the town, he believes there’s other areas that have suffered worse damage.
More to come…