‘The worst in the last decade:’ Swift Current man describes flooding

The flooding in Swift Current has residents on alert as they wait to see what happens next with the slowly rising water.

The city remains in a state of emergency and crews have made plans to deal with rising waters. Sandbags have become more widely available to people and the city is encouraging those in low-lying neighbourhoods to protect their homes just in case something happens.

Flooding in Swift Current on April 12, 2023. (Brandon Wiebe/Submitted)

Brandon Wiebe lives in Swift Current and was taking a stroll through Riverside Park just before noon Wednesday and said the water was climbing a bit higher than 24 hours ago.

“It kind of looks like the north of the South Saskatchewan River has come to Swift Current,” Wiebe joked. “I often wished that we had more of a river here and now that we have one, it’s kind of dangerous.”

Wiebe noted that walking by the Lee Lam Bridge, the water was getting closer and closer to impacting the road.

“There’s a decent amount of space down there normally, but now the water is actually hitting the bottom of the bridge and that’s kind of concerning,” he explained. “It’s not a giant bridge, but it’s one of two ways to get to some housing here by the park. If it gets much higher, it’s going to be taking a lot of water fast.”

Highways in southwestern Saskatchewan have been impacted by the flooding, with one section of Highway 42 near Lucky Lake completely washed away.

Wiebe added the flooding throughout Swift Current has been spread out, but says he didn’t see any houses impacted.

“It gobbled up all of the low flood land it could get to. The house that I’m looking at across the creek here, the water is about 20 feet away from it right now. If it gets much higher, it certainly could impact housing,” he explained.

“We have a disc golf course that runs by this creek and a lot of the holes are now completely under (water), but a measuring stick was a basket. (On Tuesday) morning I could see the top one-fifth of a basket and by the afternoon it was gone.”

Wiebe said he spoke to people on his walk and they said while they’re used to flooding every spring, most suggested this is the worst they’ve seen in a while.

“Usually there’s some degree of pickup of water each year. Maybe every few years it gets kind of floody, but talking to some people (on Tuesday), they don’t think it’s as bad as 2011,” he said. “I just know that it gets a little nuts every now and then, but I assume this is at least the worst in the last decade.”