The Rural Municipality and Town of Craik is coping with a deluge of water this spring that has already flooded a number of homes in the town, washed out two or three grid roads in the RM and is threatening to overflow the dam.

Hilton Spencer, reeve of the RM of Craik, said they have “piles of trouble all over” the area due to frozen ground, farmers draining sloughs, a drainage ditch around town that wasn’t cleaned out, quick warmth outside and a large amount of water runoff that their culverts could not handle.

“It’s different from last year,” said Spencer, noting there is water flowing over roads in several places in the RM and town. “We had more snow last year, but the ground wasn’t froze up (and) quite a bit of it soaked in. It got a little bit warmer (last week) and I think there is just an abnormal bunch of water in the snow this year.”

Craik Mayor Rick Rogers said their drainage ditch around the town overflowed the afternoons of April 8 and 9, which let water stream through the Craik School yard and down Ferguson Street flooding out some houses. He said residents of town could see the water coming before the floods hit when the temperature reached the teens in the middle of the week.

“There (are) probably six houses that are in trouble,” said Rogers. “They had a lot of water in their basement.”

Erin Stephens’ house on Ferguson Street was one of the homes affected.

She said late Tuesday afternoon water was pouring in through the basement windows.

“By 4:30 p.m., walking in our driveway, water was up to our knees.”

Besides flooding their basement, water also flowed into their garage. She said by 10 p.m. Tuesday they had cleaned up the water in the basement. Then Wednesday afternoon more runoff came into town from the fields to the west flooding the Stephens home and others on Ferguson once again.

Their finished basement sustained water damage and many items in the basement and garage are wrecked.

She said their insurance doesn’t cover flood damage. She hopes the town will provide compensation.

“We’ll be expecting the town to do something for us, but nobody has told us anything yet,” she said.

She and her husband and two kids have lived in the house for 10 years and this is the first time they’ve been flooded.

“It’s frustrating because it could have been prevented,” Stephens said, referring to the town not cleaning out the drainage ditch in front of her home.

To read more please see the April 14 print edition of The Davidson Leader.