The town of Swan River in western Manitoba has told residents in flooded areas to leave immediately as rising water swamped the community for the second time in a matter of weeks. The renewed flooding sent people scrambling once again to protect homes that had barely dried out from an earlier deluge.
Officials moved quickly to get people to safety. The town issued a mandatory evacuation order on Wednesday for residents in the affected areas, and Mayor Lance Jacobson estimated that roughly 150 people had to be evacuated as the water rose.
For the region, it was a grimly familiar scene. The flooding marked the second major flood event to hit the Parkland region in about three weeks, and the town was still under a state of emergency that had been declared after major flooding struck earlier in June.
The latest inundation was driven by another round of severe weather. The same system that brought thunderstorms to the area on Monday night dumped more rain on Tuesday, overwhelming a landscape already saturated and leaving residents racing to shield properties previously hit by flash floods.
The evacuation reached across several neighbourhoods. The order covered properties on a number of streets, including Duncan Crescent, Heyes Street, Crescent Drive and Centennial Drive, along with parts of Sixth and Seventh Avenue North and River Park Drive.
The scale of the emergency prompted a call for outside help. Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew said he had asked the federal government for military support to assist with the response, as local resources were stretched by the repeated flooding.
The crisis extended well beyond Swan River itself. More than 30 communities across the Parkland region have now declared states of emergency, and transportation officials reported that up to 50 roads had been damaged, covered by water or washed out, sharply restricting travel.
The flooding also struck a key piece of health infrastructure. In the nearby city of Dauphin, which declared its own local state of emergency, a power outage at the Dauphin Regional Health Centre forced the evacuation of the hospital, with the province saying 57 patients and one infant were being moved to Brandon and other facilities while a temporary urgent care centre was set up at the Dauphin Medical Clinic.
Provincial officials pointed to the sheer volume of rain. Some areas had received more than 200 millimetres, and Kinew announced 5 million dollars in provincial money to help municipalities cope with flood relief, describing an active flood-fighting effort still in need of equipment, sandbags and resources.
With the ground already sodden and the threat of more storms looming, officials warned the situation could remain volatile. For a region hit twice in quick succession, the priority was getting people out of harm's way and bracing for whatever the weather brought next.