Stonewall town council is holding a special meeting today, July 24, 2026 to talk about ongoing recovery from the heavy rain and flooding that hit the community weeks ago. The meeting notice was posted July 22, the same day a province-wide 911 outage left many Manitoba communities without emergency call service for hours.
The public meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. at council chambers in town hall, 293 Main Street, but the town says the location may change — check the meeting notice for updates.
Stonewall received about 255 mm of rain in roughly seven hours on June 9, causing what Mayor Sandra Smith called unprecedented flooding. The town declared a state of local emergency on June 11, and Smith said the last overland flooding before this was in 2010, but this event was much worse.
During a visit to Stonewall on June 11, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew announced a provincial disaster financial assistance program to help residents with flood damage. Then, on July 10, the province launched the Manitoba Flood Recovery Program, a one-time grant for homeowners and renters in the hardest-hit communities, including Stonewall.
The July 22 911 outage was caused when a fibre cable was cut during construction near Winnipeg, according to Bell, which provides 911 services in Manitoba. The company said the 911 system runs on older technology and even backup systems were affected in what it called a rare case. The outage did not affect Winnipeg.
