Major storms batter much of southern Manitoba, causing heavy flooding

A storm in Manitoba dumped nearly a month’s worth of precipitation within just a few hours, significantly damaging homes and businesses. Alex Karpa reports.

BOISSEVAIN, MAN. – Darren Sicinski’s basement in Boissevain, Man., is in ruins after being flooded by a massive storm Monday evening.

“Everything is soaked,” he said.

Over two feet of water spilled into his basement, as his community, which is about 260 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, received a whopping 150 millimetres of rainfall in just a few hours.

“We had a big storm in 2017, but it wasn’t as bad as this. This was just wild,” he said.

Sicinski’s clothes and most of his appliances, including his washer, dryer and furnace, are destroyed. Now with the water mostly gone, he is left to clean up and salvage whatever he can.

“I think it’s all kind of messed up,” he said.

The rural municipality of Boissevain-Morton has declared a state of emergency due to the significant flash flooding and overland flooding in the region.

“Municipal crews and staff have been working around the clock to respond, assess damages, and restore services while continuing to monitor the evolving situation,” the municipality wrote on social media.

“Although all municipal systems, including our lift stations, were operating as intended during the storm, the unprecedented volume of water exceeded system capacities,” the post said.

Local resident David Stead says he’s never seen weather like that before.

“The heaven’s opened and I didn’t even realize how hard it was coming down, until I went outside and it was like walking into a shower,” he said.

Stead and his family own Steads Farm Supply in town, and were left cleaning up Tuesday after floodwater overwhelmed their business.

“I knew there were going to be problems, but I couldn’t stop it,” he said.

“Luckily most of our things were on pallets and it didn’t get above the pallets, so we haven’t ruined a lot of stuff, but we certainly have a lot of cleanup.”

Storms batter southern Manitoba

The storm’s impact stretched well beyond the town of Boissevain, with communities across southern and southwestern Manitoba dealing with flooding, power outages and significant damage.

According to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), the southwest corner of the province was hardest hit, with Boissevain receiving 152 millimetres, followed by Deloraine and Minto with 129.8 millimetres and 113.3 millimetres.

Brandon received 43 to 67 millimetres of rainfall, while 27 millimetres was recorded in Winnipeg.

“It’s been a very interesting month, sort of two sides of the coin across much of the province, but a very stormy month across the central and southern parts of Manitoba,” said ECCC meteorologist Brian Proctor.

This latest storm to hit Manitoba is just adding to what has been a very wet spring and early summer for most of southern and central Manitoba.

Earlier this month, the town of Stonewall, which is about 37 kilometres north of Winnipeg, received 255 millimetres of rain, which flooded dozens of homes and fields in the area.

Much of the Swan River and Swan Valley West region have also been dealing with devastating floods.

High winds damage homes in Winnipeg

Several homes in Winnipeg’s Whyte Ridge neighbourhood, in the southwest part of the city, were damaged by strong winds, including broken fences, uprooted trees and a partially collapsed garage.

Among those affected was Bob Matthes’ home, which sustained damage during the storm.

“It was like in a movie: something was flying by, which was probably the shingle from one of my neighbours’ houses,” he said. “Then I looked out and my tree is gone, and it looks like it came down this way and then spun around.”

The Northern Tornadoes Project, based out of Western University, told CTV News it is assessing the damage from the storm to determine whether a tornado hit the area, but nothing has been confirmed at this time.

This only comes a day after a tornado confirmed near Rossburn, Man., —over 300 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg — destroyed a home in the area.

‘It’s quite the zoo’

As for Sicinski, there’s little left to do except move forward.

“Damage is done, so it is what it is,” he said. “Hopefully the sewer lines open and hopefully we don’t have to deal with this again.”

With files from CTV’s Kristen Yu, Charles Lefebvre, Harrison Shin