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Long road to recovery for Meota residents affected by flood

Jul 12, 2016 | 5:11 PM

Flood water has been pumped out of basements and now the long rebuilding process begins in a small resort town.

Meota experienced three to six inches of rain over a two-hour period on Sunday, July 10. Roughly 25 homes were affected.

Local resident Don Roach was out of town at the time when he received a call from his wife about gurgling sounds in the basement. When she went to check it out he said she saw the toilet and bathtub overflowing with dark brown water.

“It’s really tough right now but we will get through it,” Roach said. “It destroyed our water heater, furnace, fridge and the carpet but that’s all covered by insurance. It’s the pictures and the memories we might never get back that will be the tough part.”

Roach hired a company to clean out his basement and won’t know how many of his photo albums have been saved until after the cleanup is complete. Roach said 12 to 14 inches of sewage was pumped out of his basement. Now the basement has to be torn apart and rebuilt.

“I’d be tickled pink if all the renovations were done by the end of the summer. There is a subfloor they have to take out as well as the drywall and the carpet. All the doors have to be replaced. It will be a long time,” Roach said.

Meota Mayor, John MacDonald, got the village approved for the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program. He said that a representative from the program will be visiting in the next few days to assess damages and work with those affected by the flooding.

“We urge residents to take photos of the damage as well as document how much water there was to help assist with the program. It will help determine what we can do in the future to prevent this from happening again,” MacDonald said.

Talks between the Village of Meota and the Rural Municipality of Meota are being planned to figure out ways to prevent a disaster like this from happening again. One of the main ideas will be to enhance the culverts they have and add more.  

 

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins. Concerns regarding this story can be addressed to News Director Geoff Smith at 306-446-6397.