The flood damage in the Yorkton area has been wide ranging, and one of the facilities affected is the Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS). Premier Brad Wall visited the school to survey the damage and the clean up work that will need to take place in order for classes to begin in the fall.
Two failures occurred during the storm. A break in the storm sewer line caused flooding in the crawl space. Also, due to the fresh air intakes for the school being located below grade, water also entered the school through the fresh air system. The flood waters got into the basement of YRHS, causing an estimated $1-2 million dollars in damages. Six feet of water flooded the mechanical room where boilers, water heaters and various electrical equipment is stored.
Withman Jaigobin, Superintendent of Schools in the Good Spirit School Division, says the school division hopes that repairs can take place without disrupting classes. Student safety remains a priority, however, and Jaigobin notes that with the damage to the fresh air system, the priority is to have repair and clean up to the air system take place.
"We need to make sure that the air quality is to a level that is acceptable, so that we can have adults and students in the building," Jaigobin says.
The Good Spirit School Division is looking to the provincial government for support, Jaigobin notes, especially if student activity is disrupted due to the repairs and cleaning which need to take place.
There have been plans to move the fresh air intake in the works, Jaigobin notes, in order to prevent something like this from happening. While the necessity of such a plan has been confirmed, Jaigobin says that the current priority is to get the school ready for the fall.
"In the short term, because of the expanse of the damage, we need to focus on cleaning up, and focusing our efforts there, rather than changing the system completely right now. While that is our ultimate goal, to get the system in a place where that will not happen again, currently our focus is just cleaning up," Jaigobin says. The other issue for the school is heating. Four boilers and six water heaters must be replaced, due to the severity of the damage. Some electrical components will also need to be replaced before the school year begins.
Premier Brad Wall notes the provincial government will be able to handle the damage across the province due to the money set aside in the aptly named "rainy day fund". He says that 80 million is a modest estimate for the amount of money needed to deal with the situation, but the government has almost a billion set away for such an occurrence.
"Literally, it's been raining, we've got a year's worth of rain in eight weeks across the province, and Yorkton was hit very hard. We're going to be able to deal with this because we have that fund," Wall says.
That $80 million does not include insurance claims or crop insurance, Wall notes, and he estimates that there are hundreds of millions of dollars in damages across the province. He also notes that the provincial government is working to help, and 327 advance cheques have already been mailed to the Yorkton area under the provincial disaster assistance fund.
"In previous years, that program took 12-18 months to actually help people, and we wanted to change that. People need help today, lots of people in Yorkton are out of their homes, and there's costs associated with that," Wall says.
The disaster in the province has been a test of the program, and Wall says that it is working as a guide to what changes the government wants to make. The goal is to make the program as flexible as possible, Wall says, as needs can change depending on what the disaster is and how people are affected by it.
