Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
Without careful coordination for flood risk management throughout the water year, the Columbia River would have hit a stage of 25 feet at Vancouver in June, a height not seen in the river in springtime since 1956. That level would be considered ‘major flood stage’, as determined by the National Weather Service. Evidence of the same storm’s power was seen further south in the damaging flooding along the Yellowstone River in northern Wyoming.
With rising water levels cutting off access to her home in Mine Centre, Ont., Rebecca Maclean has resorted to unusual measures to get to work every morning. Maclean has been using her kayak and canoe to access her vehicle, parked on the other side of the flooded road in front of her house. "This is not our first rodeo with flooding," said Maclean, who lives at Bear's Pass on Rainy Lake, east of Fort Frances. "We did have flooding in 2002, and at that point in time, I didn't have a child, so I just waded every day and the water was up ... to basically mid-thigh."
