Stonewall residents hit by last week’s record-breaking rainfall will be able to tap into a provincial disaster assistance program, Premier Wab Kinew announced during a visit to the community on June 11 and confirmed in a video message the following day. The province-wide effort is aimed at helping homeowners, businesses, farms, and communities across rural Manitoba recover from flooding and storm damage that swamped the region on June 9 and 10.
Speaking directly to residents, Kinew said the province is activating its Disaster Financial Assistance program so that no one in rural Manitoba is left behind. The move follows an in-person tour the premier made through Stonewall and nearby Balmoral on June 11, where he saw firsthand basements filled with water, washed-out roads, and residents hauling soaked belongings to the curb.
Stonewall took the worst of the storm, recording more than 255 millimetres of rain in roughly 12 hours. That total, one of the heaviest single-day rainfalls ever recorded in the province, left neighbourhoods under water and forced Mayor Sandra Smith to declare a local state of emergency on June 10. The same weather system also produced two confirmed tornadoes, one near Ste. Anne and another east of Morris, and triggered nearly 11,000 vehicle damage claims to Manitoba Public Insurance.
The disaster assistance program is designed as a last resort for costs that private insurance does not cover. It can help local governments, homeowners, farms, small businesses, and non-profits cover uninsurable losses. More details on how to apply are available through the province’s Emergency Measures Organization at Disaster Financial Assistance.
Kinew said the scale of the damage demands a co-ordinated response, and the province was ready to put up the resources needed. Recovery is just beginning, but the premier’s message to Stonewall was clear: the province will stand with the community.
