‘Uh oh, this isn’t good:’ Regina residents dealing with flooded basements, roads

Randy Reiss literally got a rude awakening Friday.

Reiss recently moved into a house on the 600 block of Robinson Street in Regina’s North Central neighbourhood. When he woke up early Friday morning, he found his basement was flooded thanks to the storm that started hitting Regina on Thursday.

“The sump pump was making a really weird noise, so I figured I’d go downstairs and check it out,” Reiss said. “We had two feet of water in the basement and I could see the water coming up through the sewer.”

Unfortunately, Reiss said his basement was full of things that hadn’t yet been unpacked.

“Now it’s wrecked and supposedly we don’t even have insurance for flooding,” he said. “Our contract says no insurance (for sewer backups).”

Some drivers on Broad St. like water more than others.#Regina #Saskatchewan #Canada #YQR #Flooding #SKstorm #Thunderstorm #Driving pic.twitter.com/HD2m1LRPkE

— Nicholas Iatropoulos (@nickiatro) June 2, 2023

According to Reiss, there was about two feet of water on Robinson Street around 5:30 a.m. on Friday.

“That sewer drained out, so I figured our basement would start draining,” Reiss explained. “I went back downstairs and no, the water’s still coming in.”

As for next steps, Reiss said he’ll first need to pump out the water from his basement and then haul all of the items that were there outside.

“It’s all bad now because it’s all sewer-damaged,” he added.

Even though the damage to Reiss’ basement and his belongings most likely won’t be covered by his insurance policy, he said he’ll still call his insurance company to see what can be done.

“And if not that, then (I’ll) go to the city and see what they have to say,” Reiss added.

Carmen Smith’s Friday morning also got off to a soggy start.

At the start of the storm Thursday, she was already concerned about the water pouring down outside her home in the Churchill Downs neighbourhood.

“I was kind of alarmed that it was an hour-and-a-half of rain,” said Smith. “I thought, ‘Uh oh, this isn’t good.’ ”

At 7:30 Friday morning, Smith woke up to a holler from her husband. Smith suspected some water may have leaked in earlier, but was not eager to go find out.

“Well, I didn’t check (Friday) morning when I was wakened up by the storm because I didn’t want to know,” she said. “My husband came and woke me up and said, ‘Can you come upstairs and clean up this water I’ve got to go to work?’ ”

Her basement was flooded with water from the storm, and some of the water that leaked in carried dirt with it. Smith said she does not typically deal with flooded basements after heavy rains in her house.

Many of her neighbours have mopped out their houses since the first storm on Saturday.

“I know the lady next door is having issues but that was from the previous storm, and apparently down the street as well,” Smith said. “The houses don’t have a basement, so they are getting water in them as well.”

Insane non stop lightning in regina at 120am June 2nd #skstorm pic.twitter.com/AMWm2Ytd4t

— Eric Stromberg (@Cire605) June 2, 2023

Morley Thompson, who lives in Uplands, said he was awakened by his daughter at 3 a.m. Friday.

“We just watched out my dining room window there,” he explained.

The street in front of his home was flooded by the storm.

“What we could see was this main intersection here was underwater with all this stuff laying on top of it,” Thompson said. “Both drains’ water couldn’t get away.”

Thompson says his neighbour across the street went out to clear the drain.

“There must have been a real downpour because (he) was out here halfway up to his knees,” said Thompson.

He said the rain was coming down pretty heavily overnight. He didn’t hear much thunder, but there was a lot of lightning.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Gillian Massie and Lisa Schick