Whiteshell highways flooded, province urges homeowners to leave

For the second day in a row, the province is recommending people along parts of the Manitoba-Ontario border pack up and temporarily leave the area, after evening rains further damaged already water-logged roads in the Whiteshell and surrounding area.

The province warned cottagers and year round residents in parts of the Whiteshell Saturday to leave or risk getting stranded after torrential rains washed out a few major roads and threatened to do the same to others.

Heavy rain overnight Saturday formed gaping sinkholes on roads in West Hawk Lake and Falcon Lake, and on Sunday, the province repeated itself, urging people to exit the area.

A spokesperson with Manitoba Sustainable Development estimated that roughly 600 people were notified of the voluntary evacuation advisory during a door-to-door sweep of problem areas Sunday, including 240 along the south shore of Falcon Lake, 20 at West Hawk Lake and 50 at Caddy Lake.

The Falcon Lake underpass was "completely impassable" Sunday, and drivers were being rerouted down the West Hawk Lake underpass.

"A number of roads remain washed out leaving cottage owners stranded with only boat access‎ until road repairs can be undertaken," the province said in a statement Sunday afternoon.

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Environment Canada said there was flooding in the West Hawk Lake area after about 136 millimetres of rainfall. There was also 104 millimetres of rain just east of Killarney.

Provincial Road 312 is flooded and closed at Caddy Lake, while Provincial road 307 North Whiteshell is washed out near the CP tracks between Brereton Lake and Rennie, Man.

The Mantario Trail remains impassable and McGillivray Falls has "major washouts" near Caddy lake, the province said.

RAW: Rain causes wash out on hiking trail near Caddy Lake

8 years ago

Duration 0:09

Bell Benson shot this video of a wash out Saturday at the start of the McGillivray Falls hiking trail near Caddy Lake.

West Hawk creek now a river

Cottagers in the Whiteshell remain under a voluntary evacuation order, but West Hawk Lake resident Trevor Down said he's not going anywhere.

Down hasn't seen so water levels so high in about 35 years. A creek in his backyard has risen so much that it now looks more like a river, he said.

"The creek is normally six-feet wide (two metres) and you know at worst, it would average less than a foot deep (30 centimetres)," Down said, adding he awoke Sunday to find two of his boats and his dock had sunk overnight.

"It's risen more than a foot, without question, in the last 48 hours," he said.

The province said it's too soon to know how serious the damage to area roads is, adding repair crews won't be able to get in and fix sinkholes until conditions dry up.

Ground 'like quicksand'

Down said the area has been saturated since last weekend, when another storm swept through and knocked power out for almost three days.

"I'm surprised the power hasn't gone out again with the rain. I'm sure there are hydro polls ready to fall over," Down said. 

"The ground everywhere is like quicksand. I'm a builder and have been working on a couple spots where there's no structure to the ground anymore. It's so full of water."

Caddy Lake up about 1 metre

Robert Granke has a cabin on Caddy Lake and said his weekend stay was short-lived.

"We knew something was up when we drove through West Hawk. There were pylons all over the place," Granke said, adding Highway 44 was washed out. 

"We got to the cottage and found that the lake level had increased about three feet (one metre)."

Before returning to Winnipeg Saturday night, Granke discovered his boathouse had flooded.

"We had to move everything up to safety, and everything should be OK, but if it continues to go up, who knows what's going to happen then," he said.

'Basically I'm waiting for the locust infestation'

In early May, people in the West Hawk Lake and Falcon Lake were concerned about an entirely different force of nature, when forest fires spread northeast of nearby Caddy Lake and led to the evacuation of several communities.

Granke said to go from scorched earth to sopping muck in less than two months was not something he expected would happen.

"Basically I'm waiting for the locust infestation!" Granke said, laughing. "As a joke I say to some of my friends I'm waiting for hell to freeze over because we've seen just about everything else around here."

Meanwhile Down said the volatile conditions are concerning, but he is also impressed with mother nature.

"You don't have much choice but just to accept this is the way it is, and one of the reasons I've lived here is because of the challenges and how much more you relate to nature, so I'm certainly having the opportunity to do that," Down said.

Cottagers and permanent residents in the Whiteshell can call the province at 1-204-349-2201 until 8 p.m. Sunday for updates and information about roads and flooding.