WINNIPEG -- It's an early morning call Joyce Ward will likely never forget.
Late Saturday Joyce Ward and her family, husband Don and their son Laury, who has limited physical mobility, went to bed thinking they'd seen the worst of this year's flooding at their Breezy Point Road home north of Selkirk.
"We thought it was fine when we went to bed," Ward said. "And then a neighbour called us about 4 a.m. and said we had to get out because a big wall of water was coming." An ice jam that had been stuck north of Selkirk around Sugar Island broke loose before heading north and stalling in the Breezy Point area causing a rapid metre-and-a-half rise in the level of the Red River, sending massive ice blocks into St. Andrews and St. Clements, levelling trees and damaging homes.
After moving some belongings from their home's basement, the Wards called for emergency help when they spotted the ice chunks floating past their home. After a tense hour of waiting, relief came in the form of a team of firefighters. The Wards were taken from their home -- along with two dogs -- on a Zodiac raft.
"It was terrifying," Ward said. "Words cannot describe it. It was dark and there were ice floes everywhere."
Big cleanup
Ward said she was worried about losing everything.
"I was thinking, 'Oh my god, my house is going to be gone when I get back,' or else we're going to be gone because we're just going to float out into the slough," Ward said.
Government officials lauded the firefighters as heroes.
"I can't say enough about the rescue teams that went in," said Steve Ashton, the minister responsible for the Manitoba emergency measures. "Some of those people that were part of the rescue, I don't think they've had a day off in the last couple of weeks."
The deluge that flooded area homes quickly receded, leaving a big clean-up process.
"We're slowly getting our lives back together, but it's a long process when you've been evacuated and you have a couple feet of water in your basement," said Ward. She and her family were allowed back into their home early yesterday.
It's the third time they've been flooded since moving to the area over 40 years ago.
Farther along Breezy Point, roads remained closed yesterday as crews worked to clear ice from roads and repair felled power lines.
St. Andrews Reeve Don Forfar checked out the damage by helicopter and said it appeared over 100 of the area's 122 homes and cottages were flooded.
"That ice was powerful -- it's more powerful than several bulldozers hitting your house," Forfar said. "There's a few where hunks of the house are gone and there's places that have been physically moved off the foundation."
It was a similar story in St. Clements across the river where municipal crews and homeowners worked to clean up yesterday.
"There was water a few feet deep over my driveway," said Peltz Road resident Roger Trueman as he continued to pump water from his basement and yard yesterday.
jason.halstead@sunmedia.ca
