‘Eavestroughs couldn’t handle it’: Melville hit by rain

Summer got off to a rocky start with a handful of watches and warnings resulting in extreme weather.

Areas in central Saskatchewan found themselves in rainfall warnings. 

Melville was one of the many areas that saw a significant amount of rain on Friday.

Tracy Kerestesh lives in Melville and storm chases in her free time.

“Some places were saying three to five inches,” she said. “Farmers sent me pictures of their fields underwater. On the south side of town, some front yards were lakes. We had quite a bit in our backyard because we’re right on the drainage ditch. It hasn’t been full since 10 years ago when we had all that flooding. It seemed to handle it fairly well this time and then the rain let up a bit.”

Kerestesh and community members were worried this would be a repeat of the flood in 2014.

“Everyone on Facebook was like, ‘Oh crap!’ If it doesn’t quit raining we’re in for it again because it’s been raining quite a bit lately,” she said.

She watched her radar all day as the rain clouds rolled in.

“On the radar it was showing red areas which is intense rain and it just kind of sat here for a long time and the eavestroughs couldn’t handle it,” Kerestesh said. “We had all of ours going out to the backyard and we had a pond in our backyard too which we don’t normally have.”

Kerestesh isn’t entirely sure about the extent of damages.

“I don’t know how many basements got hit,” she said. “Ours was fine. 10 years ago it wasn’t, we got water that time. But I think the sump pumps were running pretty steady. I haven’t heard of any major issues other than the little bit of water. It wasn’t like last time (2014).”

Thankfully when Kerestesh woke up the following morning, the sun was shining.

“Everything is drying up,” she said. “The drainage ditch is down. I went out and walked the dogs. Everything seems normal, everything is just really wet. Our lawn has never looked so good.”