13 Sask. communities under emergencies due to flooding: SPSA

11 communities including Canora, Kamsack and Keeseekoose First Nation have declared emergencies this week

Eleven communities across Saskatchewan declared local states of emergency this week due to flooding, according to the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency.

Including two previous declarations, that means 13 communities are under states of emergeny as of Thursday, said Tyler Harrison, the SPSA's manager of emergency service officers.

He said nine vulnerable people from Cote First Nation have been evacuated over concerns about accessing emergency services from their homes because of the flooding.

The SPSA said those people are being supported by the community and the Red Cross.

The agency said it's in contact with all affected communities and providing pumps, hoses and sandbags. It will also have staff on the ground to help communities navigate the local state of emergency process and apply for the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program (PDAP).

"We are prepared to be there as long as it needs to be," Harrison said. "That'll vary from place to place depending on how fast the water recedes."

People clean up after heavy rainfall washes out roads, floods towns in east-central Sask.

Heavy rainfall inundated several parts of Saskatchewan over the last week, causing eastern parts of the province to "experience significant flooding," said Leah Clark, the provincial Water Security Agency's executive director of irrigation and economic development.

Between June 23 and 30, parts of the province received between 100 and 275 millimeters of water, she said.

The heavy and intense rainfall over short periods of time, coupled with saturated soil, has caused localized flooding that is "very difficult to predict and manage," Clark said.

The WSA is closely monitoring weather forecasts and expects more rain Thursday evening, she said.

Flooded basements and streets in Canora

In Canora, 201 kilometres northeast of Regina, multiple businesses are closed for the foreseeable future due to flooding.

Most have reported sewage damage and many lack the proper insurance and will need to turn to PDAP, said Brandi Zavislak, the town's community development officer.

"They're very overwhelmed. They're tired. A lot of them haven't been able to sleep."

Canora faced similar torrential rains in 2010, prompting the community to invest heavily in updating its lift station, according to Zavislak.

"This is such a wet year that they've been operating around the clock for weeks now," she said.

The town's system "is just overwhelmed," as is every other community in the area, Zavislak said.

Katie Swyers is a reporter with CBC Saskatchewan, based in Regina. She is a 2021 Joan Donaldson Scholar and has previously worked for CBC Podcasts, CBC's Marketplace, CBC's network investigative unit, CBC Toronto, CBC Manitoba and as a chase producer for Canada Tonight on CBC News Network. You can reach her at katie.swyers@cbc.ca.

with files from Laura Gillis and Alex Kozroski