Over this past week, the RM of Swan Valley West has seen unusual flooding, needing to cut roads to let water flow through.
RM of Swan Valley West Reeve Bill Gade said the RM hopefully shouldn't have to cut any more roads, as he thinks the RM is through the worst of it.
"We're up to about 30 or so [roads] that are closed, but it's been melting slowly the last few days which has helped a lot...for the most part, we think even with the faster melt on the weekend, we'll probably not see to much else. We think everything that's going to flood really bad probably has already," said Gade.
With 30 roads being destroyed to help deal with the flooding, Gade said RM already has a loose plan for road repairs once flooding has subsided. He said their priorities are major roads that people don't have an alternative to.
"We'll start off with the really big problems and just keep working at it, ideally it'll be less than 3 week, but I think being realistic it could be maybe 3 to 4 weeks," said Gade.
This year's flooding in Swan Valley West was fairly unusual. Gade said in previous years, flooding had been focused in entirely different areas of the RM.
"It's a very different year for us. Usually we see some damage in the south end of the municipality, and this year there's almost none there, whereas in the north end there's extensive damage, and typically we don't see much up that way," said Gade.
The RM of Swan Valley West does have measures in place for anyone who might need help dealing with flooding, including sandbags and emergency equipment.
"Best thing is to call the RM office. That phone is there 24 hours a day so you can call it any time. If you call after hours, just push the button for an emergency and someone answers anyway...mostly what we do is we show up with heavy equipment, if it's just an issue of ice or snow blocking something, we can move the water along rather than sandbagging a house, we prefer to do that," said Gade.
The RM of Swan Valley West Office can be reached at 204-734-3344 if needed.
