Town wins battle with the Rainy River

Ken Johnston
Editor

The flood danger has receded with the waters of the Rainy River, however the newly constructed dike will remain in place until officials are sure the river is back to normal levels.
Last week the area faced torrents of rain that added up to as much as 13.5 inches of rain in places. Most reports saw Rainy River receive about 11 inches in a 36 hour period from Sunday to Tuesday mornings.
Most people crossed their fingers that the power would stay on and keep their basements pumped out. For Rainy Riverites that was pretty much the case with the exception of Sunday night when the power went out for about four hours.
When the rain had passed, late Monday night, people breathed a sigh of relief. However, what was to come was even more nail-biting than the storm itself. With so much rain falling over a short time and over the entire region from Roseau, Minnesota through to Atikokan, Ontario, the runoff was incredible.
Creeks and ditches filled to capacity and in some cases overflowed with aggressively flowing runoff. Roads all across the region were washed out and many homes saw their basements fill up. In the town of Rainy River the runoff filled the local sewer system to over capacity levels and that backed up into people’s homes for the second time in less than a year. At the same time the Rainy River rose an astounding three feet up the Government dock and spilled into Hannam Park in a matter of a few hours.
That forced Rainy River’s Town Council to declare a State of Emergency. Volunteers were called for by Mayor Gord Prost. An army of volunteers descended on the town garage property to fill sandbags. Others formed chain-gangs to build walls around homes in low-lying areas of town. Another army of volunteers, the Legion Ladies Auxiliary and company, gathered at the legion to prepare meals for the troops on the front line.
Many of those who could not give time or muscle donated food or money to help feed the volunteers. “One lady from Pinewood came in with cases of pop and a case of big bags of chips. She said she wanted to help out in some way,” said Legion Aux. member Marlene McNally.
The hundreds of people helping fight the war against time and the rising waters worked until well after dark Tuesday filling nearly 10,000 sandbags.
A temporary berm was built at the base of town from First St. to about Third St. At the time readings from a level were taken and it was thought that if the river came up as much as two feet higher the road and the temporary berm could handle it.
Wednesday morning town officials met to discuss the situation. The first of many teleconferences between the Lake of the Woods Control Board and the Rainy Lake Water Control Board/International Join Commission took place that morning. They were trying to decide how many gates to open on the Fort Frances dam to keep the rapidly rising Rainy Lake under control. That morning they decided to hold off until they had sent staff down stream to see how tributaries were receding.
That bought the town of Rainy River a great deal of time. It was not until Thursday morning before gates were opened in Fort Frances. They were opened 2 at a time with several hours in between them to minimize the effect of the extra water. In the mean time sandbagging continued at a feverish pace on Wednesday in Rainy River and contractors were hired to build a big dike from the bottom of Sixth St. to the Willow Ct. subdivision.
The river began receding late Wednesday as runoff dropped off. By the weekend the water levels were still high, but had dropped just below the top of the government dock in Rainy River.
Gary Kerton an officer with Emergency Measures Ontario flew into Rainy River late Wednesday afternoon along with an official of Ontario’s Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and an engineer. Kerton said that he was impressed with the handle officials had in dealing with the threat of the flood waters. “These people have an emergency plan and experience with floods. They have their act together fairly well.”
Kenora-Rainy River MPP Howard Hampton and MP Bob Nault both toured Rainy River Thursday and Saturday respectively. Hampton even helped sandbag on Thursday morning.
By Friday council felt the flooding danger had passed and lifted the state of emergency. Mayor Prost said he would like to express a great deal of gratitude to the volunteers who helped fortify the town and those who helped in other ways.