!["[...]we had some road washouts and some drains that got erroded and certainly filled with debris," reported Reeve Don Wiebe. (Supplied photos)](https://golden-west-content.s3.amazonaws.com/2023-05/Rhineland_washout_April2023_01_supplied.jpg)
While river flooding is shaping up to be a non-event this spring, seasonal run-off has resulted in significant damage in some spots throughout the Municipality of Rhineland.
"Some of the snow didn't melt as fast and some ditches were filled and the snow didn't flow, so we had some road washouts and some drains that got eroded and certainly filled with debris," reported Reeve Don Wiebe. In total, about 30 sites were damaged and are currently being assessed.
Wiebe noted the Municipality didn't budget for these repairs. Because it will take a significant amount of material and time to fix the damaged sites from this year, he added Council has sent a letter to the Province encouraging it to activate a Disaster Financial Assistance (DFA) program for 2023. The Municipality is still waiting for its $5.1 million DFA payout from the unexpected high water event in 2022. According to Wiebe, local crews are nearly done with those repairs but added, the Province has yet to get to some major work that it is responsible for.
Meantime, the damage sustained in 2022 and this spring has Council exploring a few mitigation projects to mitigate future impacts.
"There are some roads that we probably need to raise," said Wiebe. "We had a report from our Public Works Director saying, here are the roads we think should be raised and so, he made a brief report to the Public Works Committee. There are places where it would make sense to keep water behind the road because it doesn't affect anyone and it can come off in a more regular fashion and not in big bursts."
