Many residents in Steinbach experienced flooding on Tuesday due to the heavy rain in the Southeast.
Darrell Dyck has lived on Home Street North for 17 years, and has never had any issues close to this in the past.
“On our street, there's a very major drain right close by. We've had water up to our driveway on the road, this time it was exponentially further, so I don't have sewer backup coverage because I figured we've never had trouble, this is the first.”
The chaos started Tuesday morning when he was in the middle of a video call.
“All of a sudden Karina was yelling at me to come, so I ducked out of the meeting, went downstairs, and there's water flowing over the whole basement from the sewer back up. So the drain in the floor is just bubbling out.”
Dyck says they had about five inches of water in there, even with two pumps going.
He says it’s very discouraging because he just finished renovating their entire basement a couple of years ago.
“And now I have to start over again.”
He believes they will most likely need to replace the carpet.
“I don't know if we can keep it, I kind of doubt it. And it's brand new and it's a bit discouraging, and I'm unemployed, so it makes it harder.”
Travis Olifirowich lives in Clearspring Greens, and was another victim of Tuesday's storm.
He was just about to leave for a doctor's appointment, but when he looked outside, the water was about four feet from his front door.
“So I canceled my doctor's appointment because I thought we'd have trouble.”
He immediately went to Canadian Tire and bought a second pump since his sump pump was kicking on and off.
“When I got home, the pump was no longer keeping up, so I put the second one in, and within about five minutes it wasn't keeping up.”
By that time, the water was up to the steps leading up to his front door and about three inches from coming in through the basement window.
Olifirowich started to use a shop vac in an attempt to help the sump pumps.
“And my wife went and got a third pump, and we threw that one in there, and by that time, there was already water seeping into our basement because the weeping tile couldn't keep up.”
Finally after they got the third pump in, the water started to go down.
He notes luckily their daughter’s boyfriend came and helped to move a bunch of their furniture up the stairs.
“So I think the damage is probably carpets and maybe a little bit of damage on some furniture, since we couldn't move everything. Some came into our garage, so I'm sure there are a few things that are damaged in our garage.”
Olifirowich has lived in Clearspring Greens for five years, and says it’s just a bad area for flooding.
“When we have major snowmelt, every spring, and every time there's a hard rain, the water in the ditch is filled up and it can't go anywhere because the culverts aren't big enough.”
@steinbach_online Several homes in Clearspring Greens in Steinbach have been dealing with flooding due to Tuesdays heavy rain. Read more on steinbachonline.com #flooding #manitoba #Steinbach #rain ♬ Quiet Night - Charmer & Klay
Nikita Pandya who also lives in Clearspring Greens says she had just finished her night shift when her husband called her asking her to check the basement.
“And I guess it was too late, when I went downstairs, I just saw it flooded.”
Pandya says the water in their basement was coming through the drains in the floor, and it was all the way up to her knees.
She says they had their sump pump running downstairs but it wasn't enough.
Luckily her husband was able to rent another one from the Rental House.
Pandya notes several of her neighbours experienced flooding from the heavy rain on Tuesday.
With files from Kenton Dyck