Council seeks disaster declaration for RR

Ken Johnston
Editor

Rainy River Town Council held a special meeting Saturday morning to try and get Rainy River declared a disaster area by the provincial government.

With a bare bones quorum, council and the mayor voted unanimously to apply to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs to have Rainy River declared a disaster area.

Town Administrator Deb Bowman said that the town had fourteen days from the date of the disaster to apply to the ministry. With that in mind councillors and the mayor all went door to door last week to deliver Application Forms for Assistance for losses and Damages caused by the July 31st storm that left many Rainy River homeowners with basements flooded with not only rain water but sewage as well.

The applications have to be into the government by today (Aug. 14th) and the town called for residents to have them in to them by yesterday.

As of Monday about 25 people had applied. However Bowman said that she has received many calls from people who have not even had the opportunity to have their damaged home looked at. She encouraged them to estimate as best they can and submit the forms.

She noted that this assistance will help those who do not have insurance but that is only if the town is declared a disaster by the province.

The province has 14 days to respond to the application by the town.

Town clerk for Lake of the Woods Township (Morson area) Pat Giles said that he was distributing the forms over the weekend as well. That town was hit with a tornado as well as heavy rain the same day as Rainy River.