New Liskeard left cleaning up after flash flood

Jennifer Mackewn of Hidden Treasure inside the New Liskeard thirft store following Thursday's flash flood. March 12/21 (Alana Pickrell/CTV News Northern Ontario)

NORTH BAY — What started off as a regular Thursday took a fast turn in the wrong direction for some business owners in New Liskeard.

"There was a little bit of water in the parking lot and within 10 minutes it was coming in the doors, like coming in the doors fast," said Hidden Treasure owner Jennifer Mackewn.

"I couldn’t even open the door, it was just too strong of a current something this way."

The thrift store, which helps support Northern Animals Rescue and Sanctuary, was filled with ankle deep water as MacKewn tried to salvage whatever products she could.

"I was putting towels at the door thinking that was going to work and in minutes it was, you know, apparent that nothing was going to hold the water [out]," she explained.

"It was coming in too fast. The sub pumps couldn’t keep up. They were overflowing and the parking lot was just getting deeper and deeper."

Flooding along Highway 65 and in low areas is common, but what happened this week was the worst it’s ever been.

"I’ve seen [flooding] maybe out in the country, but never in town," said Tina Renaud who posted a video in the Wendy’s drive thru line.

"It was, the waves were lapping up against Wendy’s building. It was something to see."

Renaud says she was in town during her lunch break when there was a little bit of flooding, but within just three hours it was extremely deep.

"It looked like a lake," she said.

"I’ve never seen that before. So we started video taping and my youngest daughter Lauren was actually quite scared because the water just seemed to be coming up instantaneously."

In addition to businesses dealing with the rapid rush of water, Temiskaming Shores Mayor Carman Kidd says several rural roads were washed out and even some hydro poles came down with the weather.

"We woke up to about a plus two temperature and by noon it was plus 16-17 degrees, so that was a drastic temperature change and the snow started melting very quickly," he said.

"We had high winds at the same time, so 50-60 km/h winds and we probably lost over a foot of snow in the one day period."

"Our public works crews have been very busy doing snow ditching and thawing our culverts, but most of that just couldn’t handle the volume of water that was melting [Thursday]," added Kidd.

As quickly as it came, the water disappeared once the city was able to clear out the culverts.

"First thing is to get all the water out, get everything dry, clean and salvage whatever we can," said Mackewn.

"There’s a lot of garbage. I was here late last night getting a lot of the garbage out and just trying to get the water out and it’s clear that anything, pretty much anything that was near the ground is garbage."

Volunteers were on sight at Hidden Treasure Friday afternoon clearing out ruined merchandise, removing the rest of the water and trying to remove all the mud that was tracked inside with the water.

MacKewn says the main goal now is getting the store back open as soon as possible.

"It’s mostly the time that it’s going to take us to reopen, that’s what’s going to hit us the hardest because the money that we raise goes the help the shelter," she said.

"With spring coming it’s also puppy and kitten season so the animals right now we’ve been trapping a lot that have been coming in. So we really depend on the store."

"If we can’t open, we can’t keep them fed and vaccinated and fixed and what not," she adds.

A GoFundMe campaign has already been set-up for the store and has over $1,700 raised, at the time of publishing.

Mayor Kidd says more flooding this spring is not a concern with most of the snow now gone.