‘I never thought this would happen to me’: Flooding forces Kleefeld resident out of her home

It has been almost one week since a major downpour flooded Khristy Butler’s basement, forcing her and her husband out of their home in Kleefeld, Man.

The couple is footing a skyrocketing bill to repair damages from the flooding. But even with their home insurance coverage, they are still tens of thousands of dollars short of making their house habitable once again, leaving them in the lurch and with no idea when they might be able to return home.

“I have to start from scratch again,” Butler said Monday. “I can’t even explain what I feel. I’m kind of numb to it already.”

A slew of thunderstorms rolled into southeastern Manitoba early last week, bringing record rainfall amounts that Environment Canada previously said are only expected once every 120 to 130 years.

The storms swamped several communities, including the rural municipality of Hanover, where water pooled on the streets and flooded farmland, ditches and basements.

Butler said the rain started falling in Kleefeld last Monday afternoon, but the water didn’t start pooling around her house until the following day.

“I was on a deserted island with complete water around me,” she said.

By the next morning, water had seeped into Butler’s basement, reaching almost two metres in height. It wrecked her furnace, hot water tank, HVAC system and electrical panel.

That damage, paired with the threat of mould and uncertainty around damage to the house’s foundation, forced Butler and her husband out of their home. 

“I just cried, we lost everything here,” she said. 

Costs swell over $100,000

Butler’s house was built on a floodplain less than seven years ago. But when she purchased her home insurance, she didn’t know that, and her coverage for overland flooding or sewer problems had remained at $10,000.

Repair costs from the flooding have since skyrocketed just over $100,000.

Butler’s family has since launched a fundraising campaign to help cover for damages. She has also applied for Manitoba’s Disaster Financial Assistance program, hoping the province could help foot the bill.

“But the catch-22 [on the program] is that you have to pay all the costs upfront and hope that the province reimburses you,” Butler said. “I can’t afford that.”

Hanover Reeve Jim Funk says Butler is not the only resident having to face the aftermath of flooding in the rural municipality.

The community is still counting the number of residential basements that were flooded, with new reports being filed every day, he said.

WATCH: Steinbach residents clean up from massive downpour:

“It’s a horrible feeling. It’s very costly because insurance is very limited in most cases,” Funk said. 

“We certainly would like the province to help us with this.” 

A spokesperson for the province told CBC News in a statement that Manitoba has been working with several communities to help them deal with the impacts of the rainfall event. 

The province said it has received 23 requests from the general public regarding the Disaster Financial Assistance program. 

Farmers also impacted

Funk said farmers are also being impacted by the flooding.

Some of them still had wheat in their fields before they were washed out last week, while the ground has become too soft for others to silage their corn crops.

“This is not something that we can catch up with within a short little period of time,” Funk said. 

The pools of water have receded almost completely in the municipality, which has received little to no rain in the week since the flooding began.

Funk said the municipality has since contacted engineering firms in an attempt to prevent an overland flooding event from happening again. 

“Everything that has been built has been built up to spec,” he said.

“It is just that there was such a hard rain in such a short time, and it’s very hard to accommodate such a vast amount of water.”

As for Butler, she hopes municipal officials can look at making sure drainage systems can “properly handle” heavy rainfall, especially in newly developed areas.

She also hopes her story can serve as a cautionary tale to other homeowners to look at their insurance coverage and obtain the maximum coverage offered for disasters like flooding.

“I never thought this would happen to me, and all of a sudden I can’t live at home.”