The Montreal River in Air Ronge is starting to flow more swiftly. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

Snow levels

Snow depth levels remain high in La Ronge

Mar 15, 2019 | 5:00 PM

Residents of the tri-communities should be mindful of flooding as the snow begins to melt.

As of March 13, there was still 48 centimeters of snow on the ground, which is among the highest levels in all of Saskatchewan. For comparison, there is 38 centimeters of snow left in Prince Albert, 27 centimeters in Saskatoon and 26 centimeters in Meadow Lake. Other locations in the province, however, have next to no snow such as Regina with seven centimeters, Watrous with five centimeters and Kindersley with four centimeters.

“We’re pretty busy right now,” said Air Ronge Foreman Sterling Ulriksen. “One thing people should be doing is having a bit of patience. This is Canada and it’s winter turning to summer and it’s a mess.”

In the last week or so, public works staff in the village have been working to clear ditches of snow. Sterling noted it’s important the ditches remain free of snow as it begins to melt, so water has somewhere to flow and won’t accumulate. He stated, during this time of year, residents are shovelling their driveways or removing snow from roofs, and they should be mindful not to place the snow in the ditch.

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Next week, residents can expect to see crews steaming culverts in Air Ronge to aid in the flow of water. So far, only one culvert has been steamed, but Ulriksen added water hasn’t began to flow as heavy as it will soon.

“What they should be doing in the summer time is grading at their house to keep the water away from their house,” he said. “We can’t do everything. We try our best, but there’s so many culverts for every house. There can sometimes be two or three driveways and it’s a lot of pipes. They have to take a little bit of ownership of their own property.”

In the summer and fall, Ulriksen noted residents should clear eavestroughs and water spouts to assist with water flowing away from their homes. He also recommends people clear the culverts at their home from any leaves or other debris that could have collected. It’s common, Ulriksen said, for small toys to also become lodged in those places and ultimately make a mess.

“One person could clog up a whole street,” he said. “If a culvert is plugged on the lowest one on the street, it could potentially back up everybody on that street.”

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derek.cornet@jpbg.ca

Twitter: @saskjourno