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SW Saskatchewan | Where we are on the south side of the Cypress Hills it is just more good (wet) weather. Have had adequate rain all spring but this past week we have had about 4" more. Tuesday and Wednesday amounted to about 2", overnight Wed we got 1.2".
Thursday morning I left for Regina and "appreciated" all the wet along the way, Belanger and Davis still had the canal into Cypress Lake full but this time it was the little dinky Lone Pine Creek coming out from South of Cypress Park providing the Water.
Then when I wasn't there to supervise, all hell broke loose on the North Side of the Cypress Hills. Has been wet there all spring and they had finally brought the Irrigation reservoirs up to full- but regrettably that left no room to trap the surge!
Normally the Cypress Hills don't run off too much - being 40' to 300" of cobble rock and sand underneath a thin layer of native sod most times the water slips underground to provide spring flow for the numerous creeks that make the area paradise.
The rainfall this week WAS NOT unprecedented! In late June 1988 there was 11" of rain in 48 hrs through the Cypress Hills Park, Maple Creek area but the hills were still capable of absorbing water. Some of the town flooded, fields were well wetted but no major damage.
When coming home from Regina Friday I heard about the flood and decided not to risk it- as it turned out I could have slipped south on highway 37 and west on 13 and made it but as it was still raining and knowing that that route could be cut in a million places we waited till Sat afternoon to try it. Drove to Saskatoon for Friday night and go to see a lot more wet country-highways were telling people to detour through Rosetown and Kindersley to get to Calgary but there was enough water moving around I would have avoided that route unless I really needed to get to Calgary.
As luck would have it, we were stopped at the weigh scales west of Swift Current and told hiway 21 south of Maple Creek had just been re-closed - a bridge had just failed so we did do the hiway 37-13 route. Swift Current Creek was high as was Rock Creek and a dozen other unnamed water courses so Swift could still get some high water if Duncairn can't even it out.
Anyway, on checking the gauge I see that we had another 8 tenths Thurs and Friday to being that event to 2" too. Lots of sloughs around but no major surprises. Battle Creek has been running full tilt even with its diversion into Cypress Lake wide open- and the water from Elkwater is supposed to make it today- since that is the area thjat the north slope fed the Walsh and Irvine floods, it is suspected the flood on the south slope could be destructive- wait and see.
My observations - Swift Current to either Regina or Saskatoon has seen more flooding. Homeowners on flood plains around here will have a lot of wet basement and maybe some structural damage and of course hiway damage. Fields on the Walsh flats are toast- but maybe it will have long term benefits as a lot of salts are going to be flushed downstream-takes a lot for the flats to overflow so they have been collecting salt for a long time.
Another benefit- we are about to build a new 50-60 million $ hospital in Maple Creek on the floodplain in an area that had building restrictions because of flood danger. Now that the old hospital and the development built on so-called "safe" elevations were flooded there might be some re-evaluation of using the donated site ( the owner was going to get substantial tax benefits).
Other observations - a lot of flooded out crop in western Sask- lterally thousands or tens of thousand low spots flooded and crop dying in patches from half an acre to dry lake beds of several thousand acres that are no longer dry!
Also - once a person gets to Shaunavon and north or east, something like 70% of the acres were seeded to pulses- mainly lentils, a lot of Chick Pea and only a smattering of field pea.
There were more acres in Canola than wheat.
The lentils and Chick Peas are pathetic at this stage- been too wet and cold to start nitrogen production, yellow and stunted! Will take a miracle to make a crop as I could hear disease multiplying as I drove by on the highway!
So my sympathy to all of you out there with wet feet! This spring has been nothing but a blessing to us here though that could change at any minute--put on LOTS of hail insurance last week.
And the forecast is for More rain this afternoon through Tuesday night.
Good luck to all of you. | |
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