'We're just trying to control it': Manitoba community rushing to protect homes from surging floodwaters

A southern Manitoba municipality is trying to control raging floodwaters after a neighbouring community was hit with over 100 millimetres (mm) of rain in 24 hours.

According to Environment Canada, 101.9 mm of rain fell from 10 p.m. Monday to 10 p.m. Tuesday in Austin, which is part of the Rural Municipality of North Norfolk.

The “unprecedented” amount of rain caused the municipality to declare a local state of emergency Tuesday.

Now the community of MacGregor, which is about 12 kilometres east of Austin, is building a dike on the west side of town to control floodwaters rushing towards it from its neighbour. They have also sandbagged and set up tiger dams to protect vulnerable homes from the surging waters.

The Rural Municipality of North Norfolk has sandbagged and set up tiger dams to try an protect vulnerable homes from surging floodwaters.

“The rains in the hills south of Austin flooded Austin. Basically, Austin is under control right now, but all that water is coming towards us here in the town of MacGregor, and we're just trying to control it,” explained RM Mayor Gerald Barber.

Mother Nature didn’t help efforts much with strong southwesterly winds pushing the water rapidly.

Barber said the water is flowing fast and furiously through MacGregor to other parts of the municipality, washing out roads on either end of its boundaries.

“There’s a lot of access issues. There's a lot of crops under water. It’s really going to hurt this area,” he said.

Barber worries more precipitation could lead to flooded houses, and is hoping for a dry few days while the RM recovers from the deluge.

He said so far, the municipality has had lots of help from the province and neighbouring communities.

“Manpower is always a problem, but we’re holding our own right now,” he said.

- With files from CTV's Glenn Pismenny