Weekend storm leaves hundreds of basements flooded in Winnipeg

A weekend storm left city streets underwater and flooded hundreds of basements in and around Winnipeg. For one couple, the flooding was so bad, they had to abandon their home Sunday night, only to return Monday morning to a sopping mess.

In the 33 years Gary and Christina Beeusaert have lived in their home in East St. Paul, they say they've never experienced flooding this bad. Around 9:30 a.m. Sunday morning, water started pooling up into their home and wouldn't stop.

"It was just bubbling up constantly," said Gary Beeusaert, adding they were able to get in touch with the RM and were told the system was overloaded. "We were told just to lift stuff up and do what you can."

Even with four sump pumps going throughout the day Sunday, Gary Beeusaert said it wasn't enough to spare their home from the flooding.

"The water just came up and it ran – well we had to leave because we couldn't use the bathroom. So we went to a hotel with our two dogs overnight," Gary said.

When they returned the next morning the water had gone down, leaving damage in its wake.

"As you can see, we have quite the mess," Christina said as she surveyed the waterlogged basement.

The damage is the result of a weekend of snow and rain that left parts of Winnipeg and East St. Paul under water.

"We had significant flooding, overland flooding throughout the RM," Dennis Wiwcharyk, the emergency coordinator in East St. Paul, said. He added it is not clear yet how many homes were damaged in the flooding – which he called unprecedented.

"Approximately 6,000 sandbags were picked up by residents throughout the RM," he said. "We had pumps pumping overland, removing water from lake systems that were reaching capacity level, and those pumps are still in place right now."

In the City of Winnipeg, hundreds of homes flooded in the weekend storm which, according to Environment Canada, brought as much as 70.5 mm of precipitation to the city.

"I haven't seen anything like this in Winnipeg's recent history, no. It has been a pretty interesting winter, hasn't it been – a lot of snow, a lot of cold. Mother Nature just keeps on throwing us a curveball," said Jay Shaw, assistant chief responsible for emergency management with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.

Shaw said much of the flooding was a result of the still-frozen ground which was not able to absorb the downpour.

"What that does is it allows all that rain to do a runoff and we get that overland flooding."

The city's 311 service received more than 1,100 storm-related calls – including 412 calls about flooded basements, 35 calls for high water in retention ponds, and 695 calls for flooded streets or ditches.

"Basically where we're at right now, is we are just ending sort of the operation period where we are clearing as many of the ditches and culverts and catch basins as we can, and then we are going to get into the recovery operations," Shaw said, adding homeowners who experienced flooding need to reach out to their insurance provider.

Gary and Christina Beeusaert are still waiting to hear what their insurance will cover – they said the water damage means at the very least they will need to tear up their carpet.

"We'll see how far the money goes. We only got $20,000 in flood insurance and that don't go too far these days," Gary said.

Shaw said more details on what to do if your home has flooded can be found on the City of Winnipeg website.