Rainfall
Rain can be a paradox. It gives life, and it also takes it away. Too little can leave the earth brittle and bare of life; too much can leave it overwhelmed. We who are able to control so much of our lives for our own benefit find that we are at its mercy, whether we’re preparing our fields and gardens for planting or even going about our daily lives. We in Saskatchewan have known both extremes. We’ve lived years when rain hardly came at all, and now we are soaked and overwhelmed.
The statistics are stunning. Records have been shattered all over the province. According to Agriculture and Agri-food Canada, rainfall in Regina has been 150-200% higher than average; in some parts of the province, such as the southwest and northeast, rainfall has been well over 200% higher. In Maple Creek, 10.1 cm of rain fell in just two days; 21.7 cm of rain has fallen there in the past two months. Saskatoon was recently hit with 80 mm of rain in one day. And on July 1st, Yorkton was swamped with a staggering 100 mm rain in just half an hour. According to CBC News Saskatchewan, it is estimated that 60-70% of homes in the city took on excess water.
But the statistics are just numbers; they only give us a dim image of the damage done by the rain. They don’t show, for instance, the flooded basements all over the province, the fields and gardens covered in water, some wet patches the size of small lakes or ponds. They don’t show the swollen rivers and reservoirs that rushed onto the streets of Maple Creek, flooding houses and half-burying cars, flowing so heavily and so violently that they covered six kilometers of the Trans-Canada highway and caused a small section of it to collapse. And they don’t show people being evacuated from Yorkton by canoe while the streets filled with water. More striking than any statistic are the sights of cities being flooded in our own province.
Just as hard hit have been some of Saskatchewan’s 44,000 farmers. Again, the statistics are staggering. According to the Government of Saskatchewan, just 76% of this year’s crop has been seeded. The Star Phoenix reports that there are 10 million unseeded acres in the province, more than any year in Saskatchewan history. Our agriculture industry could face up to two billion dollars in lost revenue. And it’s not just crop losses that farmers face; the wet, soggy weather has led to an increase in livestock diseases such as footrot. But again, the statistics don’t give us the whole picture. They don’t show the stress and anxiety of farmers who make their living growing these crops.
The damage will be felt for a long time as people clean up their homes and businesses and farmers recover from flooded fields, sick livestock, and financial loss. All we can do now is look to the skies and hope for some sunny, dry weather in the weeks ahead, and as people have done since the dawn of civilization, hold on to the hope that next summer will bring not too much rain or too little, but just enough.
Submitted by Jennifer Bobowski