Flood evacuee says she can't return home because road isn't safe

A St. Jean Baptiste flood evacuee is calling on her municipality to help get her daughter to school after temporary repairs made to the road to her home were deemed unsafe for school buses to travel on.

Karen Desiatnyk's family was forced out of their home by the swollen Red and Roseau Rivers three weeks ago, and while the Rural Municipality of Montcalm lifted the evacuation order Monday, Desiatnyk said she doesn't feel safe going home.

The family has been staying at a hotel in Morris during the evacuation, but have to leave Friday. Desiatnyk is worried about how her 13-year-old daughter will get to classes.

"I have no trouble with them calling it unsafe for my school bus, but I would have trouble — it would be unsafe for my van," she told CBC News.

"If it rains, I'm going to have to treat it as a snow day if I can't make it there."

Desiatnyk and her family live on Provincial Road 246, just east of St. Jean Baptiste. In late April, the municipality declared a state of emergency as water from Red and Roseau rivers was about to cover the road in the community, about 70 kilometres south of Winnipeg.

Jean Barnabe, emergency co-ordinator for the municipality, says the road is one of several in the municipality that were washed out during the flooding. He said gravel was used to fill in the washout on PR 246 and make a temporary one-lane roadway, so residents could return home.

"It's a temporary road, because the RM has other places to fix also," he said. "It's to give access to everybody."

'It isn't great, but it's not that bad'

Drivers with 4x4s would be able to navigate the roadway, but Desiatnyk said she's worried about making the roughly eight-kilometre drive to meet her daughter's school bus in her van.

She has already had trouble on the road this week, she said.

"I could only go maybe the maximum of 40 (km/h), my van bogged down ... it fishtailed," she said.

"If that stuff gets wet, we've got a bigger problem than that."

Barnabe says he's spoken to Desiatnyk about her concerns, but there isn't much the municipality can do because he says the road is passable and conditions will only improve over time as the municipality's grader and other vehicles drive over it.

"It isn't great, but it's not that bad," he said. 

The municipality plans to permanently repair the road, but it could be into the summer before the work is completed, he said.

Meanwhile, Desiatnyk wants the municipality to help with accommodations so her daughter can get to school, and said she feels like the municipality is letting her down.

"They're not taking our situation into consideration," she said.

"You can't expect me to do it and jeopardize my own child's life."

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