It was called the Storm of the Century by some (and no doubt things unprintable by others), but officially, it is now known as “The 49th Parallel Storm and Flood.”
For those who were here back in June, 2002, it was a weather event never to be forgotten. But for four district MTO employees and the crews they represent, it also was a shining moment.
It was because of the efforts of those four, and the MTO crews that toiled for weeks to rebuild the district’s transportation system after unprecedented rainfall had washed out vast portions of it, that the provincial government honoured them with Amethyst Awards, presented by Premier Dalton McGuinty during a gala ceremony at the Winter Garden Theatre in Toronto on April 21.
The Amethyst Award is given in recognition of outstanding achievements by Ontario civil servants.
The four honoured were Toby Vennechenko, maintenance co-ordinator for the Emo area; Doug McIntyre, maintenance co-ordinator for the Nickel Lake area; bridge and facilities co-ordinator Randy Noga; and electrical services co-ordinator Doug Flegel.
In order to appreciate the magnitude of their efforts, it might be useful to review the events that preceded them.
On June 9, 2002, a depression from the Prairies moved into the district and, over the next two days, dumped more than 300 mm (12 inches) of rain, accompanied by high winds, over an area encompassing some 15,000 square km.
The Pinewood-Stratton area reported rainfall as high as 400 mm (16 inches).
To further aggravate matters, intermittent thunderstorms and rain continued throughout the rest of the month.
The result was nothing short of catastrophic. Normally quiet creeks became raging torrents, severing power and telecommunication lines to many communities.
Entire sections of provincial and township roads were washed out. Thirteen provincial highways were closed at some point and about 1,000 km, or six percent of the entire provincial highway infrastructure, was shut down.
The Ministry of Transportation quickly mobilized to determine the scope of the damage, but flooded areas initially only could be accessed by air.
Meanwhile, suppliers in Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, and Muskoka began shipping culvert material as well as a temporary Bailey bridge. Bridge builders arrived from as far away as Sault Ste. Marie.
Over a four-week period, about 50 MTO staff logged more than 7,000 hours assessing damage, administering repairs, and providing support.
“The first call I got was for some downed trees,” Vennechenko recalled. “Then it just kept progressing. Pretty soon we were getting calls from everywhere.”
But Vennechenko and his Emo crew had their own problems: they literally were cut off from the rest of the world. All Ontario highways leading into Emo were flooded and closed, so just responding to the increasing number of emergency calls became more and more difficult.
That resulted in a considerable amount of frustration on the part of residents, who were themselves stranded.
“It seemed to some people we weren’t doing anything, but we had to build roads just to get to our pits so we could build roads to get to them,” he explained.
Vennechenko said the hardest-hit area locally was near Spruce Creek, north of the junction of Highways 621 and 619.
“When that went out, there was no way out of there. Those people were stuck for about two weeks,” he remarked. “We just couldn’t get back there. All we could do was fix stuff as we got to it.”
Vennechenko said it took nine weeks before things were restored entirely to normal. In that period of time, he and his crew worked virtually around the clock.
“It was ridiculous. We were working 20 hours a day,” he said.
McIntyre and his crew faced an equally daunting situation. The closure of Highway 11 meant traffic entering Canada at Fort Frances bound for the Dryden-Ignace area had to detour through Minnesota to Thunder Bay or Winnipeg, then loop back to their destination.
This tacked up to 10 hours onto the trip. The personal and commercial costs were immense—especially for those accessing health services or transporting perishable and live cargo.
It was imperative this vital transportation link be restored immediately.
McIntyre asked a local logging operation trapped between washouts to make road repairs. Considerable ingenuity came into play, as in the case at one location where large boulders were placed in the washout directly on top of the culvert to minimize the risk of complete collapse.
Noga immediately began planning and co-ordinating the delivery of the temporary Bailey bridge for the washout on Highway 11 west of Atikokan. In spite of shortages of food and equipment, his crew of 17 managed to get the highway open by June 21.
Meanwhile, Flegel set up temporary traffic signals and variable message signs to alert traffic to the closures and detours. At times, this necessitated cannibalizing old traffic signals to make the system work.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
