Clean-up from Tuesday evening's unexpected downpour continued today in the City of Winkler.
By morning, City Manager Jody Penner reported water levels on many of the flooded streets had gone down. While that was encouraging, noted Penner, public works and utilities crews turned their attention to the City's sewer system which continued to be overwhelmed.
"We have asked residents to try to minimize their water use as we try to catch up," said Penner. As well, residents are asked to ensure their sump pumps aren't sending water into the sewer system, but rather on to the street or their yards. Penner was hopeful the system would further stabilize throughout the day, and expected it would return to normal by the weekend.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Penner said the City had heard from quite a few people whose businesses were flooded during the storm. Not as many calls had come in from impacted homeowners, but Penner noted they know some homes were affected as well.
He wasn't yet sure if any applications would be made for Disaster Financial Assistance.
"I think that remains to be seen. We're not sure if that's something that's going to apply in this case. Of course, we would always advise to work with your insurance company as a starting point."
Penner admits, the 4 inches of rain that fell in the City within an hour was unprecedented.
"Our indications right now show that it's, at minimum, a one in one hundred year event," he explained. "Which essentially means that there's a one per cent change of that volume and intensity of rain in any given year. We think it could be an even more rare event than that, we just don't have final numbers in yet."