Flood cleanup continues with 17 Sask. communities declaring emergencies

The number of Saskatchewan communities that have declared emergencies due to flooding has now reached 17, mostly concentrated in east-central Saskatchewan.

Public Safety Minister Michael Weger said the worst seems to be passing, after a tour of the area on Friday, joined by SaskBuilds and Procurement Minister Sean Wilson, who represents Canora-Pelly.

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“It’s some very devastating stuff that’s happening from the high flood levels, high water levels,” Weger said during a Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency briefing on Monday. Weger said he was planning to visit Fishing Lake and Kuroki after the meeting.

The agency said it’s helping affected communities with equipment like pumps and hoses, along with sandbags and people when needed. Staff are also assisting with disaster assistance applications.

Weger said he saw a lot of people pitching in to help during his tour.

“In Canora, for instance, there’s actually a stockpile in the community, you could be seeing them driving their half ton trucks down to unload this damaged property in this location to later be hauled away,” he said. “And people making trips out to the transfer stations.”

He said in Kamsack, around 70 per cent of basements have at least some water damage.

“Everywhere you look, people are just trying to get cleaned up, and they’ve got cleanup companies, shampooers parked in their driveways, and the doors are open, and on their lawn is their damaged goods.”

Weger also described rivers overflowing their banks and across farmland and pastureland.

“In the homes, I think they’re in the cleanup mode, but you know, out in the country,  the water is still flowing quite rapidly,” he said. “They’re just concerned that another incident doesn’t come along to drop another four inches in one blast or something, and just overwhelm a network that is right at capacity.”

Planning to prevent future incidents

Weger said affected communities will have to complete their own reviews on how to prevent future flooding problems.

“They have a curb and gutter system in Canora for groundwater, and what is the possibility of upgrading that?” he said. “Unfortunately, I think the answer in Canora is that it’s a really, really costly process, and it would be a major, major project.

“But it’s, again, something that’s probably a question that I think the municipalities have to work with their engineers and their advisors to see, is there something else we can do, but at the infrastructure level, and then possibly further education in the community with residents, as well.”

He said as minister, part of his job is to get feedback from affected residents and to meet with mayors and administrators.

“I think you learn everything from every flood that happens, you learn a little bit, and if there’s ways that we can adapt and changes that we can make that minimize the damage next time, we have to be looking at all options.”

Leah Clark with the Water Security Agency added local watershed associations can be valuable as a resource as well.

“They can really help be a good local community conduit to help get some of those engineering solutions brought together, and they’ve worked really well in some areas.”

Two twisters touched down in Sask. on Friday, Environment Canada confirms

A pair of tornadoes touched down in Saskatchewan over the weekend.

Christy Climenhaga, a scientist with Environment Canada, said both tornadoes hit on Friday afternoon, with the first touching down in the Springwater area, west of Saskatoon, and the other touching down near Edam, east of Lloydminster.

“No reports of damage or injuries at this point, but we did see those touchdowns,” Climenhaga said.

She said the province has seen a rapid start to the tornado season in 2026, with 15 touchdowns so far this year.

“Probably between 14 and 18 (tornadoes) per year is what we’d consider normal, so if you have a quiet rest of the summer it could end up being like bang-on normal. It’s a little bit busier though,” Climenhaga explained.

“We had 23 in the whole season (last year), and then the year before that about 18, so it’s a busy start, for sure, but we’ll see how the rest of the summer goes. Once the season’s over, you’ll get a good sense of if it was a very busy season or not.”

Climenhaga said Friday was the most active day for the thunderstorms during weekend, as west-central Saskatchewan and areas around Saskatoon and south of Regina were hit with heavy rain, wind gusts and hail.

Hailstones the size of golf balls were spotted in the Kindersley and Mervin areas, while pea-sized hail was seen in the Outlook area and dime-sized hail was spotted in the Estevan area on Friday.

“We saw local reports of damage and some local water pooling or flooding, but not a lot of widespread damage that I’m seeing yet,” Climenhaga said. “Of course there was a very strong storm that rolled through, so we’ll have to take a look.”

Climenhaga said there were reports of funnel clouds in the Carnduff area of southwest Saskatchewan on Sunday night, with more reports coming in from around Eston, south of Kindersley.

She said a strong line of storms rolled through the Swift Current area, moving down through to southeast Saskatchewan.

“I did see some reports in Swift Current of a little bit of hail damage,” Climenhaga said. “They had quite a bit of hail, although it was very small hail, so it looked a little white on the ground with all of that hail piling up on Sunday night, so a little bit of tree damage and tree branches down.”

Over the past 72 hours, Climenhaga said Saskatoon got more than 36 millimetres of rain. Only a couple millimetres fell in Regina, but she said some areas just south of the Queen City got more than 20 mm of rain.

Climenhaga said the weather should be a bit more quiet across Saskatchewan over the next few days.

She said Regina should see daily high temperatures in the 20-30 C range, with no risk for storms over the next couple of days.

“Later in the week we’re going to really start to see that heat building once again, maybe up towards the 30 C mark by the weekend, and later in the week the chance of some more thunderstorm activity, so we’re going to have to keep an eye on it as we move through the latter half of the week,” Climenhaga noted.

Climenhaga said she expects the story to be similar in Saskatoon.

“Not quite the same degree of heat as the south,” she said. “We’re really starting to see that heat pooling into areas in Regina, Saskatoon, still probably seasonal, or a couple of degrees warmer than seasonal by the weekend, but I’m feeling more of that heat in the south.”

–with files from 980 CJME’s Abby Zieverink