This is topic State of Emergency declared in Melville in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.


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Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 06-29-2014, 05:13 PM:
 
It never rains but it pours. Literally.

I've been vacuuming several thousand gallons of water out of my basement all day here. I have three Shop Vacs and they're earning their keep today. Water is coming in so fast that I built a little temporary dam using a big garbage bag and gravel and put a hose under it to lead to one of my sumps. Water is running through that hose as fast as it can take it.

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Sask. communities of Melville and Carnduff call state of emergency

quote:
Heavy rainfall over the weekend in southeast Saskatchewan has some communities struggling to keep up with the influx of water.

It's led to dangerous travel conditions after some highways were submerged or washed out, and several states of emergency being declared.

The city of Melville called a state of emergency just before 9 a.m. CST after significant rainfall in the area.
Melville Flooding

Significant rainfall has lead the Melville, Sask. to declare a state of emergency. (City of Melville)



Mayor Walt Streelasky tells CBC News the rain has compromised the city's sewer system. He is asking the people of Melville whose homes are flooding to to pump water into the street so it reaches the storm drains instead of the sanitary sewage system.

All of the city's fire trucks and those from neighbouring communities are working to pump water from the community, he said, adding one of the lift stations is sitting at about 45 cm and crews worked through the night sandbagging to keep the area from flooding further.

The town of Carnduff and the RM of Mount Pleasant No. 2 have also declared a state of emergency, according to the town's website.

It asks people in the area to stay where they are if they are safe and avoid travel.
Stranded on the farm

​Futher east, Denise Belisle phoned CBC from her farm near the Manitoba border saying water was rising around her home and she couldn't get to a road. Belisle's home is in the RM of Storthoaks, east of Redvers, Sask.

"Our home is surrounded by water, our yard is completely inundated, our farmyard is completely inundated. It's like a big lake and it's rushing across the road in four directions all around us," Belisle said.

Fairlight Flooding

Highway 48 to Fairlight, Sask., about 30 km south of Moosomin is overwhelmed with water. (Facebook)

She said Sunday morning the rain had been pouring and the wind had been howling for 24 hours, so she couldn't get to her livestock.

"We don't know where the cattle and the horses are, they're down south and the water is headed in that direction," she explained. "So we can't get down to check on them until it stops raining and we can access them."

Belisle said her cousin had called RCMP on her behalf.
Highways submerged

Meanwhile, police and highway crews are reporting dangerous road conditions due to the influx of rainwater.

Officers said nobody was hurt but many vehicles had become stuck trying to pass water-logged roads.

Highway 13 became washed out Sunday morning west of Redvers. RCMP said the same highway had portions under water east of Redvers as well. Highway 8 south of Redvers is under water.

Moosomin RCMP and highways employees decided to close Highway 8 from Moosomin north to Spy Hill, Sask., saying severe flooding crossing the highway and gravel roads has led to debris pile-ups making road travel particularly dangerous.


 
Posted by Carsten Kurz (Member # 5396) on 06-29-2014, 05:57 PM:
 
Stay afloat, Frank!

- Carsten
 
Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 06-29-2014, 11:46 PM:
 
And only 1,300 miles or so away we're in the grip of what is reported to be the worst drought in several decades (according to my weather station gadget, the last rainfall here was on March 3, and there has been rainfall on only four days in 2014 so far).

So let's hope we can swap weather, for a little while at any rate!
 
Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 06-30-2014, 07:20 PM:
 
Then you'll have mud slides!
 
Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 07-01-2014, 01:05 AM:
 
Melville is cut off tonight. All roads out of town are closed due to either flooding or wash-outs.

Four people were rescued from a highway north of here with a helicopter -- they were driving on the highway and it washed out in front of them. When they attempted to backtrack, it washed out behind them too.

We get cut off once in a while in the winter during blizzards, but this is unique.

On the good news side, the forecast for tomorrow and all the way up to next Saturday is for sun and no rain. For the first time in over a week, it might not be raining.
 
Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 07-01-2014, 10:56 AM:
 
On the positive side, it's not raining and the sun is out right now.

Melville hospital evacuated
quote:
Melville, Sask., was evacuating its hospital and care home Tuesday morning as flood water continued to cause grief for city residents.

157 patients from the Melville and District Health Centre and St. Paul's care home were being move to the Horizon Credit Union Centre, a hockey rink.

People started the transfer shortly before 6 a.m. CST.
Melville and District Health Centre

Rising water has been creeping toward the Melville and District Health Centre, the city's mayor says. (City of Melville)

Volunteers have been working through the night filling sandbags to protect the hospital and other threatened buildings around the flood-plague city of 5,000.

Many communities in southeast Saskatchewan and western Manitoba have been battling flooding over the past few days after torrential rain fell on the weekend. Melville got over 120 millimetres.

Roads, bridges and culverts have been washed away, crops are ruined and the basements of hundreds of homes in the area have been filled with rainwater and sewage.

Walter Streelasky, the mayor of Melville, said it's been a struggle to keep the flood waters at bay.

"We've got water that's creeping in around our hospital, so we're taking no chances and a full-scale evacuation is on, he said. "We've got a tremendous amount of volunteers sandbagging and doing all these things."

Streelasky says he regrets having to move patients, but he's glad people are there to help.

The Red Cross is on its way, but Streelasky says they could also use more volunteers for sandbagging and to help out at the rink.

Meanwhile, the city is keeping a careful eye on a berm at a reservoir. Streelasky said there is a concern the berm may have been "compromised", although he's not sure if it's broken or breached.

An inspection by helicopter will be done today to find out, he said.


 
Posted by Dave Macaulay (Member # 813) on 07-03-2014, 11:36 PM:
 
It's not often Melville is mentioned on the CBC national news, wish it was for a happier story. Positive thoughts towards you and your neighbors, I hope it gets better soon.
 
Posted by Frank Cox (Member # 6258) on 07-04-2014, 12:24 AM:
 
The situation appears to be improving now. It hasn't rained for a couple of days and the streets are drying up, at least in the downtown area and I haven't been anywhere past that myself. There was mail brought into the post office this morning and I see a notice posted stating that regular garbage pickup will resume on Monday. (It was cancelled this week because the dump was inaccessible.) The people who were evacuated from the care home returned there this afternoon.

As for what affects me directly here at the theatre, I am now vacuuming up far less water in the basement than I was at any time over the past two weeks. At its peak I was getting about 50 gallons per hour of water flowing into my basement; right now it appears to be under ten gallons per hour and the flow is diminishing. Hopefully it will stop within the next few days. You have no idea how tired I am of vacuuming water off of the floor, pretty much every hour around the clock. There comes a time late at night, though, when I say the hell with it and let it flood so I can get some sleep, then clean it up again in the morning. Right now vacuuming it every three hours seems to be adequate, which is a nice change.

I seem to have lost some weight, I guess from all of the labour I've been doing. As of a couple of days ago my pants have started falling off which is, aside from anything else, a bloody nuisance when I'm trying to vacuum water. I can only cinch my belt up so much.

I've been answering the phone a lot this week with people asking if the theatre is open for the regular show. Which it is and has been. I'm sure that I lost a lot of the crowd that I would otherwise have had, though, since most people have been busy placing sandbags and cleaning things up, and anyone who wasn't already in town wouldn't have been able to get into town since all of the roads were closed.

I've been starting the show and leaving my wife look after things while I vacuum water, but haven't had to do that for the past two nights since the flow has slowed down enough that it can wait until the show is over. Gave me a chance to sit down for a while and read a book, which I haven't been able to do at all for some days.

As long as it doesn't rain again for a while....
 




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