Flash floods reported with up to 100 mm of rain predicted for Sask.
Lloydminster, Humboldt, Yorkton, Estevan among the cities with flooded streets
Lloydminster is the latest Saskatchewan community to deal with flash flooding after torrential rain Monday.
Streets in the city straddling the Alberta-Saskatchewan border were flooded as heavy rain poured down in the early morning hours.
The heavy rainfall tested the capacity of Lloydminster's stormwater system. Luckily, Alan Cayford, director of public works with the City of Lloydminster, said that the stormwater system worked as it should.
"This certainly gives us an opportunity to analyze what we have in the system and see if there's any improvements that we need to make," Cayford said. "We'll do that, but the system performed as its supposed to perform."
He said the stormwater system is designed to catch the water and let it go slowly so it does not flood neighbours.
As of Monday night, Cayford said the city actually came out relatively unscathed by the flooding.
"Mother Nature is going to control what we have to clean up. So we're not anticipating a great deal of cleanup will need to be done, as far as the city infrastructure goes."
The flooding was limited to six areas around the city, mostly in the north end.
According to Environment Canada, many cities, towns and villages can expect totals of 70-100 millimetres by the time the weather system moves into Manitoba.
Estevan was swamped the night before and the mayor and council had declared a local state of emergency.
The streets of Yorkton were also flooded. The situation was the same in parts of Humboldt.
The Saskatchewan governments said the region between Swift Current and Hudson Bay was expected to get the most rain and that could mean localized flooding for some communities.
The Water Security Agency said soil moisture conditions are near normal, so the landscape has the ability to absorb much of the extra rainfall.
Meanwhile, rural areas that were under an Environment Canada rainfall warning Monday include the RMs of:
- Canaan including Lucky Lake
- Coulee including Neidpath and McMahon
- Excelsior including Waldeck, Rush Lake and Main Centre
- Glen Bain including Glen Bain
- Lac Pelletier including Blumenhof
- Lacadena including Kyle, Tyner and Sanctuary
- Lawtonia including Hodgeville
- Morse including Herbert, Morse, Ernfold and Gouldtown
- Riverside including Cabri, Pennant and Success
- Saskatchewan Landing including Stewart Valley
- Swift Current including Swift Current and Wymark
- Victory including Beechy
- Webb including Webb and Antelope lake
- Whiska Creek including Vanguard, Neville and Pambrun
It's possible some communities will get more than 100 millimetres of rain by Wednesday, the weather agency said. Estevan, for example, had more than 130 millimetres in some neighbourhoods on Sunday. At the Estevan airport, 73 mm was reported.
