Manitoba First Nation facing $300M in flooding damage: chief

One Manitoba First Nation is facing hundreds of millions dollars in flood damage, after the community declared its second state of emergency in two months.

“It actually is very frustrating. It’s very tiring, fatiguing. I know a lot of people don’t feel very good about our situation,” said Chief Glenn Hudson of Peguis First Nation in an interview on Sunday.

“This being our 12th [flood] in the last 20 years, so we are used to it somewhat, but not back-to-back like we’ve had.”

Peguis First Nation first went under a state of emergency in early May, when flood waters covered streets, filled basements, and flooded crops. Last week, the community declared another state of emergency after it was once again hit with heavy rain.

Hudson noted the community was just starting to recover from the first round of flooding when it was hit with more water.

“We have a lot of work to do involving the first flood,” he said.

“It devastated our community quite a bit.”

Hudson estimated the damage from the first round of flooding will cost about $300 million to fix.

“We haven’t gotten through all of the houses that were damaged that first time,” he said.

Hudson added that a number of residents who were forced to evacuate back in May learned they would have re-evacuate this month due to the heavy rain.

The chief noted that 37 homes have been impacted by the latest round of flooding, many of which having only recently dried out since May’s emergency.

Hudson’s concerned the rain expected to fall this week will make things even more stressful for Peguis residents.

“We want to see long-term flood mitigation in place, but also when it comes down to the state of readiness in terms of floods, we have to also prepare in that way. That’s something that we call on both levels of government to try and help us with this situation,” he said.

- With files from CTV’s Taylor Brock.