Weekend flooding at Pine Creek First Nation destroys 4 homes

Four homes at Manitoba's Pine Creek First Nation were destroyed and 17 were evacuated due to weekend flooding in the low-lying lands between Duck Mountain and the southern basin of Lake Winnipegosis.

Derek Nepinak, chief of the Anishinaabe nation about 100 kilometres north of Dauphin, said about 30 people were forced to leave their homes, which have been cut off from the rest of the community and have no access to fresh water or supplies.

Nepinak described the flooding as the worst he's ever seen on the Sclater River, Pine River and North Duck River, all of which meander northeast from Duck Mountain into Lake Winnipegosis.

"I've never seen water come in like that. I've never seen the Pine River that high before in my in my life and it was scary for a lot of people," said Nepinak, who described the rising water as akin to a flash flood.

Flooding near the community, which has about 1,100 residents, inundated Highway 20, which runs west to Swan River.

"It looked like a river in some places," he said, "because there was no telling where the ditch ended and the road started because the water was moving so quickly over it."

All the water has receded and Manitoba Hydro has attended to damages that included a pole that caught fire, Nepinak said.

Some people forced out of their homes began to return Monday evening, he added.

"They're doing that by choice. We're not recommending they return home yet because, we have no definitive timeline on when we can open up the road again and we can't deliver services to that part of the community until the roads are open," he said. 

"So we're asking people who are asking people to stay stay in place for the time being."

Nepinak also appealed to other levels of government to shore up infrastructure to protect against future severe weather events.

"We've been kind of left out of a lot of the infrastructure planning around climate change adaptation, and that really concerns me," he said, referring to Pine Creek and other First Nations.

Further northwest, water running off the steep Porcupine Hills blew out culverts, collapsed roads and eroded riverbanks near Mafeking, on Highway 10.

Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation described the flooding throughout the Parkland region this weekend as unprecedented.