Friday's downpour breaks decades-old rain record in Winnipeg, leaves some homes damaged

WINNIPEG -

A downpour of rain in Winnipeg on Friday brought more than 60 mm of precipitation – breaking a decades-old record and leaving some homeowners scrambling.

On Friday evening Carol Webster and her husband noticed some small leaks around the living room window of their St. James-area home. When she woke up later in the night, there was water pouring from her ceiling.

“I yelled upstairs and said ‘I think we have a big problem’ and just took it from there,” said Webster.

“I actually went on the local Facebook group and a lot of really helpful people were giving me ideas of who they’ve used (for water damage).”

Webster called her insurance company and the roof damage is now being assessed.

She’s lived in the house for 28 years, and said she has never experienced anything like this.

According to Environment Canada, Winnipeg recorded 65.7 mm of precipitation on Friday.

The previous record for the greatest rainfall on Aug. 20, was set in 1983 when Winnipeg saw 47.2 mm of rain.

Webster isn’t the only Winnipegger who suffered water damage as a result of Friday’s heavy rainfall.

Patrick Lundrigan, owner of Ground Down Foundation, said he’s been getting a lot of calls about water seepage in basements, flooding, and sump pits not working.

“It’s been a busy season because it was dry, now that we’ve had the rain, it’s going the other way.”

Lundrigan said the dry weather this summer can cause houses to shift and foundations to crack, and when you add high volumes of rain it can lead to flooding.

“People don’t notice their problems yet until they go downstairs and they start walking around on the carpet, and the carpet is all wet.”

To protect against flooding and water damage, Lundrigan suggests making sure the soil surrounding your house slopes away from the foundation, and making sure eaves troughs are working properly.

Meteorologist Justin Shelley said the intensity of the rainfall is a big factor when it comes to flooding and rain damage.

“You can have a lot of rainfall fall over a long period of time and not necessarily get that type of flash flooding. Whereas if you have very high intensity rainfall, or if you have a lot of rain fall in a very short period of time, that’s when you have a higher risk of seeing those flash floods occur, especially in urban centres.”

Webster said all the ceilings on the main floor of her home will have to be replaced.

“I’m sure if we’d had a normal summer my roof would have made it at least another year, and that’s when we were planning to replace it.”

Here is a break down of the 36-hour rainfall accumulations in Manitoba as of 11 a.m. Saturday:

• Melita 71.6 mm
• Sprague 71.2 mm
• Brandon 71 mm
• Winnipeg Airport 70.7 mm
• Carberry 61.5 mm
• Gretna 56.5 mm
• Shoal Lake 49.9 mm
• Winnipeg The Forks 43.5 mm
• Cypress River 42.3 mm
• Wasagaming 38.9 mm
• Gimli 38.4 mm
• Portage La Prairie 36.3 mm