The bridge on Township Road 110a in Cypress County is washed out in the early hours of June 18, 2010.--FILE PHOTO
gslade@medicinehatnews.com@MHNGillianSlade
A decade ago an unexpected flood ripped through Cypress County starting in the early hours of the morning in Cypress Hills on June 18, 2010.
Creeks flooded, washing out bridges, and people fled their homes with some having to be rescued.
Paul Von Huene and his wife Twyla, ranchers in Cypress Hills, remember the first inkling of trouble when their telephone rang at 4:30 a.m. A neighbour’s home was flooding and they needed help. A lingering memory is the noise.
“It was so loud, just a roar,” he said describing the sound of rushing water as a roaring wind and a jet aircraft.
Luz Perschon, general manager Cypress County at the time, was notified by the RCMP. He remembers heading out at 5 a.m. driving east on Township Road 110a where there was a large bridge across the creek.
“I was horrified by the amount of water pouring down towards Irvine. The road on the east side of the bridge was already washed out,” said Perschon. “An hour or so later the road on the west side was washed out as well.”
The Irvine fire department was already helping people get out of Mavista Acres (opposite side of the road to Irvine).
“My worst fear was there wasn’t going to be enough time for people to really get prepared for what was coming,” said Perschon.
That Friday morning the Trans-Canada Highway was under water within hours. Travel was closed in both directions of the No. 1 from Dunmore to the Alberta-Saskatchewan border. Highway 41 to the United States border was closed because stretches of the road were under water.
“I did not sleep much for the next several days as the Seven Persons Creek would follow. The rest of the month was mostly occupied with flood issues,” said Perschon.
Von Huene says the creek on their land was usually about three yards wide, but on June 18 it was the width of two football fields and fences were washed away.
In a special edition of the News on June 24, a Maple Creek reporter described how ranchers Darvin and Kris Mason had water four feet deep in corals and some cows were “bobbing in the water”.
Jared Roth, Irvine cattle rancher, described his harrowing escape after his truck was swept off the road and down an embankment near Mavista Acres.
“Water started coming in and it was up to the seats in the truck and I figured I’ve got to get out. I got out and stood on the roof and the truck started to move again so I had to jump into the water.”
He swam to some trees where he was rescued by the Medicine Hat Fire Services Aquatics Rescue Team.
Rancher Curtis Vossler said his family had to swim from their front door to their vehicle.
Cypress County had experienced heavy rainfall that month. A spokesperson for Elkwater town site said rainfall had been 400 per cent above average, with 10 cm on the day before the flood.
Medicine Hat was warned that Ross Creek and Seven Persons Creek would continue to rise that weekend.
Environment Canada issued a “flood warning” for all tributaries flowing north out of the Cypress Hills.
The railway line, near the road bridge across Ross Creek on Hwy 41A, was destroyed when the embankment gave way. Crews worked around the clock to stabilize the bank and rebuild the railway line so that trains could move again.
Ultimately the road bridge had to be closed and eventually replaced. In the interim a Bailey bridge was assembled allowing a single lane of traffic.
Near Irvine there were farm buildings lying in Ross Creek alongside the highway for many months after the flood.
Initially the Von Huenes thought their own home had not been affected. Then doors no longer closed and door frames were out of shape.
“The bottom of the door way was two feet wide and the top three feet wide,” said Von Huene, who noticed basement walls were bowing in. “The structure of the house had failed completely.”
An emergency excavation around the house had to take place. Ultimately the whole house was raised and a new foundation poured. That was the beginning of an 18-month journey seeking financial assistance from the province under the Disaster Recovery Program. Von Huene still calls that time the worst 18 months of his life.
While some of the people affected by the flood decided to move away, the Von Huenes stayed. They say the creek has “healed itself.”
First the willows came back and more recently poplar trees then Manitoba maple trees and the ground is filling in.
“The sediment is starting to turn to soil,” he said. “Grass is starting to come.”
