SIOUX LOOKOUT – In a Twitter video posted by incumbent NDP candidate Sol Mamakwa, the video “Floods in Sioux Lookout” shows a resident’s home submerged under that rising floodwater.
This is only one of 20 residential homes that have been affected.
Along Lakeshore Drive, two residents had to flee as the water breached their sandbagged barricade and a rush of 18 inches of water stormed their property.
The Sunset area is completely flooded and those living in the area have also left for dryer ground.
“We have been working with people from KDSB and Red Cross to house people that don’t have an alternative. Most people have found alternatives of their own, said Mayor Doug Lawrance. “Either friend family, or a trailer somewhere. For some people who have needed assistance, we have in at-the-ready cots and sleep bags in our area.
Although the Municipal Flood and Housing Assistance program are open to residents in Fort Frances and Rainy River, there is still no word if flood assistance will be offered to the resident of Sioux Lookout.
“With Municipal Affairs and Housing, we are asking to be declared a flood area, so individuals can access disaster relief assistance Ontario, said Lawrance. “Without us being declared a flood area, I don’t think that can happen.”
There are essentially two routes in and out of Sioux Lookout. If you come in on Wellington through the underpass, that’s one route through town and the other is the bypass that was constructed in the 1990s to ease the flow of heavy traffic out of the downtown area of Sioux Lookout.
When asked if the Ministry of Transportation will provide any assistance in repairing the flood damages to the bypass, Lawrence said, “We have been asking them to do what they have to do to open it, and we have not had a positive response yet,” said Lawrance.
Without the by-pass in operation, heavy traffic is forced to drive through the downtown areas of Sioux Lookout, an area ill-equipped to face the burden.
In parts of the Wellington area, the floodwaters have risen through the storm sewers flooding the street and saturating the ground. Lawrance reports that the flow of heavy traffic has broken some of the sewer pipes adding to an already problematic situation.
“We had to create a detour around Wellington, so we can effectively repair a sanitary sewer, but we can’t open that again in fear that more sewer pipes and stormwater pipes will break again. So, right now all traffic through Sioux Lookout including B-transit, fuel trucks, and heavy commercial traffic has to come through Wellington, then a small detour around on roads that are not designed for that traffic,” said Lawrance.
With more rain forecasted for the days ahead, the Township of Sioux Lookout might be underwater before help comes from the province.
