Torrential rains wash out area road

Highway 621 hit the hardest
Ken Johnston
Editor

As if a tornado was not enough, Mother Nature decided to unleash her torential fury in the form of rain, thunder and lightning after lunch last Tuesday, July 31st.

The shock of the twister left people wondering what had happened. But that was not the end of the day. Rain started coming around lunch time and did not let up until midnight in some areas.

Roads were washed out across the region. Just about every road heading north off Highway 11 was washed out. Highway 621, from Sleeman to Morson was hit the hardest, with washouts starting just north of Sleeman and running all the way up the highway. Side roads were also affected and the approach to the Bergland bridge was completely gone.

The most severe washout was in front of the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario yard in Bergland. It was about 75 feet long and washed out as deep as 10 feet in places.

Bob Johnston of Rainy River recorded 12.01 inches of rain in a fifteen hour period with about five of it falling between 5 and 8 p.m. Three inches fell from noon to five and the rest fell after 8 p.m.

Before the rain hit hard in the evening, Hydro One had sent crews as well as poles out to Morson. However, with the road washed out later that day, they had to bring more crews in by helicopter, which was the case in the Lake Despair area as well.

Residents of Morson and Bergland areas that could get to their local stores cleaned them out of staples like milk and bread in anticipation of being cut off from the rest of the world for possibly as long as a week.

However, within a day or two Wally Detweiller of Morson had fired up his big lake barge and did what for many years in the early years of the of the tourist trade was considered normal. He transported people needing to get out of Morson back to Windy Point on Hwy. 600. He also transported hydro crews and trucks into Morson.

The store in Morson was able to travel by boat to Sioux Narrows and pick up more supplies to keep their residents from running out of the necessities of life. When the Bergland bridge approach washed out they swapped trucks to get supplies from the south to the north.

Mona Stone who lives near Bergland, said they were completely stranded where she lives. Her husband had been to the store the day of the storm but they were out of bread and milk already. To get out of where she lives they had to cross via planks or climb down the banks and up the other side. They also had to have someone waiting there to take them to the store as it was some distance.

By Friday she reported that they were “Free again!” Gravel trucks were going by her place like crazy trying to fill the holes in. The only big problem remained a connection to Highway 11. But reports came in on Sunday that a route had been repaired including big MTO washout.

Staff at Peterson’s Foodtown inBergland said yesterday that the highway from Sleeman to Morson is completely open. They said it is bumpy but passable at slow speeds.

That was good news for those needing to get to town and good news for Rainy River merchants. Many of them noted a decline in business as a good portion of their customer base was unable to get to town.

In several of the wash outs huge culverts were completely washed away and had to be tracked down.

Electricity was restored to the main arteries in Morson Thursday, however some areas were still reported to be without power on the weekend. But by Monday power was restored to all areas including Assabaska Ojibwe Heritage Park north of Bergland, which was without power for nearly a week.

Park Manager Colin Tom said that reports that people were wanting to get out of the park and could not were false. He said the park was in constant contact with the authorities and that “worse case scenarios” had been discussed in the event that someone or everyone in the park had to be evacuated.

He noted that a few campers were inconvenienced, having to stay a few extra days. However no one was injured in the park despite the fact that the same storm that ripped up the Morson Marina, knocked trees down all over there.

Tom echoed the comments of many when he said they were fortunate not to have any medical emergencies. He noted that only a few campers cancelled out of their reservations last week and that several were determined to get there and waited for detours to open up. He noted that this weekend they will be back to normal and are expecting to be busy.