Steinbach, Man., still in recovery mode after consecutive years of heavy floods

It is the typewrite of force that is supposed to befall erst a century: 2 months of rain in a single night.

But Steinbach's animal shelter, which moved into a new building more than two years ago, has yet to experience a September when it did not have to evacuate its animals due to flooding.

And at least 200 residents in the southeastern Manitoba city are still waiting to find out whether they can expect financial aid for the back-to-back floods from a provincial disaster relief fund.

"[The floods were] almost a year to the day, so it's kind of unbelievable in that sense," said Graham Pollock, vice-president of Steinbach and Area Animal Rescue.

In 2024, a storm dropped 156 millimetres of rain over Sept. 16-17.

Steinbach recovering from consecutive years of flooding

This year, the rain fell even harder. Over Sept. 11-12, the city was deluged with 103 millimetres in just four hours, and 135 millimetres by the time it stopped, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Steinbach and Area Animal Rescue volunteers had to find homes for 22 animals that needed a home for the month it took to clear the damage and restore power.

The volunteer-run organization has now spent $50,000 on overland flooding deductibles in two years, and the repairs are still incomplete.

Pollock says when this year's rain fell, he got a call at 2 a.m. That water was again pouring through windows and filling the basement.

Shelter president Michelle Neufeld happened to be checking on the cats late that night, Pollock recalled, only to see history repeating itself. There was no rainfall warning from Environment Canada for the unexpected deluge.

"She could see in the back, the water was starting to come out from the drain … and start to creep across the yard," Pollock said.

A pool two metres deep formed in the shelter’s basement. All the food was under water and other supplies were bobbing near the ceiling.

Other Steinbach residents were also hit hard by the second year of flooding. The intensely focused line of the storm also dropped more than 100 millimetres of rain on La Broquerie, 10 kilometres east of Steinbach, and on Niverville, 20 kilometres northwest of the city.

Troy Warkentin, Steinbach's city manager, says the province has yet to declare the flood a disaster and approve aid for about 200 people who applied for assistance with uninsured costs through the Manitoba Disaster Financial Assistance program.

"To be hit with similar storms of that magnitude two years in a row, I don't know what the odds are but it seems extremely, extremely rare for the city to have experienced that kind of event," he said.

The only currently approved disaster assistance, announced on Oct. 1, is for this year’s wildfires.

Warkentin hopes to hear early in the new year on the status of Steinbach’s application.

City council heard from residents who came to meetings asking for action after the back-to-back September storms.

Public works already had an approved plan to twin its force main (a pressurized sewer pipe that uses pumps to move wastewater uphill or across flat ground when gravity flow isn't enough) that sends water to a lagoon in 2026. That should allow the stormwater pump to send water out of Steinbach twice as quickly during heavy downpours.

This fall, staff went into ditches and drains to improve grading and clear out vegetation, Warkentin said. That includes nearly two kilometres of the main drain that runs behind the animal shelter, collecting water flowing from the city and areas east and south of Steinbach.

Warkentin said the city is also looking at lift station expansion and drainage infrastructure in next year’s budget, as it plans for the city’s rapid population growth.

In the meantime, more residents are investing in sump pumps and backflow valves to keep homes dry.

The animal shelter has also built up the ground around its basement windows.

However, infrastructure planning and improvements will not protect the entire city from downpours such as those seen the last two Septembers, Warkentin stresses.

"It's coming down to the fact that the storm in 2024 and again in 2025, they were just so severe regarding their intensity as compared to what is typically the design standard in Steinbach and frankly, any other municipality that has stormwater systems," he said.

"It just overwhelmed the systems that were in place."

Reporter

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