Storms soaked southern parts of Manitoba on Wednesday, leaving one small town flooded up to its knees.
St-Pierre-Jolys, a community of about a thousand in the southeastern part of the province, was hit with at least 75 millimetres of rain in one hour, according to Environment Canada. Photographs show that in some areas, water rose to almost waist-high levels.
"It just went from dark, to darker, to rain – to over in about a half an hour," said local restaurant owner Arlene Enns.
Highway 59, the town’s main throughway, was closed down by the deluge, and didn’t reopen until Thursday morning. A few cars were damaged after the flash flooding, with buildings also sustaining damage from high winds and downed trees.
Mayor Mona Fallis said she was in a meeting when the skies opened up.
"We knew it was raining, and when we came out, all of the streets were flooded at least up to the curb," said Fallis. "The entire parking lot was flooded right up to the doors."
Though summer storms are common in the area, Fallis said this one was exceptional.
"Never in my 50 plus years living in this community have I ever seen the water come up so high so quickly."
In the main part of town, water pooled up to three feet deep, forcing some to stay up late helping as the aging infrastructure struggled to handle to water.
"It was a big lake. It was an absolute lake. You could have canoed in there,” said public works foreman Micke Carriere, who watched over the pumps and made sure traffic was being rerouted properly.
Brandon, Man., a city in the southwest part of the province, was also hit with about 60 millimetres of rain from the storm system that brought 100-kilometre-per-hour gusts and coin-sized hail.
