1946 – 2026 Watching Steinbach Grow: Late spring downpour floods Southeast

JUNE 19, 1959—Over four inches of rain in two days drowned out much of the seeded acreage in the Southeast, caused thousands of dollars in damage to country roads and bridges, and at one point one-third of Steinbach streets were under water, in the worst flooding the community had ever seen.

This is the second time this spring much of the area has been under water and there is a fear that it will be impossible to seed thousands of acres in the aftermath of the flood.

The heavy rain created flash-flood conditions in Steinbach, when water in ditches and the Steinbach Creek started rising after the rain stopped, and the water rushed in from the east.

The peak of the flood came at 3 a.m., Thursday morning (June 11), when a third of the town, south and west of Main Street, was flooded. Three families were forced to leave their homes for the night, but were able to return later in the morning.

For a time, excess water flowing into manholes on the flooded streets threatened to cause a back-up in Steinbach’s relatively new sewer system. Emergency pumping units were set up and 70,000 gallons of water per hour were pumped into the lagoon to alleviate the problem.

Emergency response to the flooding also happened in Ste Anne, where Peter Thiessen, in charge of civil defence here, brought pumps to the Ste Anne Hospital at 10:30 p.m., Wednesday (June 10) and later organized a dozen volunteers with motor boats to stand by in case they were needed to evacuate residents.

The Marchand forestry station recorded nearly five inches of rain by 10:30 p.m.,Wednesday, when water began swirling down Main Street in Marchand, flooding several homes, forcing families to leave.

The CNR tracks were washed out for over a mile, just east of La Broquerie, and all the roads and driveways along Highway 52 from La Broquerie to Steinbach were washed out, as culverts and bridges were too small to handle the rushing water.

During the week following the flood, municipal officials were out trying to assess the damage to roads caused by the two-day downpour.

It was expected that damage to bridges and roads in southeastern Manitoba will run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. In Hanover alone, the cost of repairing roads and bridges will be well over $50,000, the reeve said.

The RM of La Broquerie and Ste Anne lost every bridge across the Seine River, in addition to numerous roads being washed out.

Simon Rieger, chairman of Mennonite Disaster Service at Steinbach, contacted RM of Ste Anne Reeve Camille Chaput, offering any help they could provide. After the waters had subsided, a dozen MDS volunteers were in Ste Anne helping to pump out basements and clean up debris.