‘Turned a tap on:’ Storm causes flash flooding in Warman

Jun 15, 2018 | 11:38 AM

The calm weather in Warman Friday morning was a far cry from the harrowing storm that raged less than 12 hours earlier.

Around 8 p.m. Thursday, Lacey Hickson was on the highway from Saskatoon to her home in Warman when she saw the sky darken.

“When we got to the south entrance to Warman, it was like somebody turned a tap on,” Hickson said, adding she thought it would be better to get off the highway and drive through the city.

“That was a horrible idea because the streets were all instantly flooded. The water was splashing up to the windows and I was only going about 20.”

According to Environment Canada, a storm in and around Warman brought about 33 millimetres — or 1.3 inches — of rain.

Photos and video posted to social media showed people walking through knee-high puddles and vehicles sitting in deep water.

Police and city workers out closing streets. Heads up as these are not small puddles. Crazy storm. #warman #saskstorm pic.twitter.com/oV1EKJQ227

— J(anelle) (@tuckergirl) June 15, 2018

A spokesperson with the City of Warman said the streets are designed to retain water until the draining system has time to catch up.

The city said it received a number of calls to the 24-hour Public Works line with employees sent to put up barricades around the localized flooding.

Everything cleared up by 1 a.m.

Hickson said she didn’t notice much debris the next morning, or see any major damage.

“You can see where sand is all built up around drains and all the landscaping mulch and stuff like that out on the roads – so you can tell that (water) was high up on people’s grass,” she said.

As of Friday morning, the city said no one had made reports of storm damage.