'It was coming in so fast': Teulon residents working to cleanup flood damage

Days later, large parts of Teulon, Man. are still underwater after a severe thunderstorm pelted the town with water.

Brooke Allison, who lives in Teulon, said her property flooded in a matter of a few hours.

"I woke up at 6:30, and in the middle [of the backyard], there was starting to be a puddle, and then I came home like around noon, and it was like this, so not very long at all," she recalled.

The water has since started to go down on Allison's property, but she still has no running septic services.

Anna Pazdzierski, the town's mayor, estimates around 75 per cent of homes in Teulon were damaged by the flooding.

"It was coming in so fast that nothing was keeping up. People with two pumps running couldn't keep the water out of their basements," said Pazdzierski.

It's a problem long-time resident and former Teulon mayor Ted Hodgkinson says could have been lessened if the municipality had worked to slow down the flow of the provincial drainage ditch that runs through town.

"A state of emergency should have been called," said Hodgkinson. "Then we could have dealt with restricting the flow of water into the town without having to run around looking for permission from all levels of government."

Wes Taplin, reeve of the RM of Rockwood, said flood infrastructure was still damaged from spring flooding.

He says the sheer amount of rain in such a short time was the reason the damage was so severe.

While the RM is currently busy helping residents with clean up – Taplin said the RM will look into how to prevent an event like this in the future.

"We've been in contact with the province and with the Town of Teulon itself to formulate a plan for after the water finishes slowing so that we can do some, you know, mitigation so that it doesn't happen again," he said.

A potential plan water-logged residents like Allison would appreciate.

"People have been saying past 20-30 years that they've lived here they've never seen anything like this, so I'm hoping this will kind of put in place a kind of plan for if this ever does happen again."