For Timothy Fullmer, the July 6, 2026 storm began with an unsettling sight.
Living near the top of Regina Avenue, a street over from Veterans Drive, he watched as water pooled outside his home in a place he never expected.
“It was odd to see a lake outside the house,” he told the Miner and News. “The water was coming from all over.”
At first, he wasn’t overly concerned about his basement. After checking several times, he found only a small amount of water seeping around a downstairs window and placed newspaper along the wall to keep the moisture from reaching the drywall. As the rain eased, it appeared the water outside was beginning to recede.
Then everything changed.
“When I went back downstairs, I witnessed the sewer water coming up into my basement floor,” Fullmer said.
Within a short time, six to eight inches of water covered much of his roughly 900-square-foot basement. Cardboard boxes, stored belongings and drywall were soaked. While neighbours scrambled to help one another with sump pumps — which quickly sold out across town — Fullmer realized there was little he could do to stop the water.
“I was so overwhelmed,” he said. “There was so much water coming in. I knew I could not dispose of it.”
A representative from ServiceMaster arrived that evening to document the damage, but the cleanup would prove to be only the beginning of a long recovery.
“I know I’m into a long process,” Fullmer said, explaining that much of the basement will have to be emptied before repairs to insulation and drywall can begin.
Despite the circumstances, he has tried to focus on small victories. Some personal belongings stored in plastic totes survived the flooding. And while the storm caused significant damage, at least it was not fatal.
“You’ve got to find the positives where you can,” he said.
For Lo Robin, who lives near the bottom of Valley Drive near the cemetery, the flooding unfolded with remarkable speed.
She said her basement was completely dry when she checked her sump pump around 3 p.m. Less than an hour later, water was rising faster than one pump could handle.
She added a second pump. Then family members arrived with additional pumps, including a gas-powered fire pump. Even with five pumps working, the water in her basement continued to rise.
“There was basically a river running down my street,” she explained. “Water was shooting out of the manholes.”
Robin said it took her father nearly an hour to drive across town to reach her home because washed-out roads forced repeated detours.
One of the nearby trouble spots was at the bottom of the hill near Evergreen Public School, where Sixth Street South meets Brinkman Road. Flooding there left a vehicle stranded in the water. Deep water also covered a large portion of Ninth Street North, affecting traffic on one of Kenora’s busiest roads.
Like many local residents, she now faces significant repair costs despite having insurance.
“My insurance was only $10,000 for sewer backup,” she said.
“Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, insurance will cover it,’ but it barely touches it.”
She expects to replace the flooring, drywall, and insulation, and potentially major appliances, while family and friends have stepped in to help with demolition and cleanup to reduce costs.
“I’ve spent $400 on dump fees alone,” she said. “The physical and mental stress I’ve gone through the last week… I’m just glad I have the family and friends I do.”
Both residents described not only the damage inside their homes but the emotional strain that followed. Fullmer, who works as a contract driver, said he lost income after missing work and found it difficult to navigate overloaded phone lines while trying to reach his insurance company and city officials during the emergency. He said the uncertainty was particularly stressful as someone living with hypertension.
Fullmer also questioned why sewage backed up into homes on higher ground, saying he believes the city’s infrastructure should have prevented it. He stressed those were his personal views while acknowledging the storm itself was extraordinary.
“We got five inches of rain in an hour,” he said. “You can’t predict that.”
Still, he added, “When we’re on the top of the hill, you should not be getting sewer water backing up anywhere.”
The City of Kenora has not publicly determined responsibility for individual flooding incidents, and investigations into the impacts of the rainfall continued in the weeks following the storm.
Fullmer said city staff returned his call the following day and explained crews had been responding to numerous flooding reports across the community, though by then the water in his basement had already receded.
The storm’s impact was also visible across much of the city.
Local drone pilot Michael Bradshaw said aerial footage captured after the storm revealed widespread damage that was still evident weeks later. He described Amethyst Avenue as one of the hardest-hit areas, where at least five homes experienced sewage backups severe enough to require homeowners to completely gut their basements.
“Not a single one of us has a bill under $30,000,” Bradshaw said, adding that many residents in the area feel there has been little support available from the city.
Bradshaw said his aerial footage also shows large fissures that appeared in several roads, as well as what appeared to be a sinkhole near Beaver Brae Secondary School that, for a time, posed a safety risk. Weeks after the storm, he said large chunks of broken asphalt remained on some streets, including a piece roughly the size of a kitchen island outside his in-laws’ home on Amethyst Avenue.
He also said raised manhole covers created yet more hazards. One damaged cover caused a flat tire that cost him about $300 to replace.
“Seeing it from the air really puts into perspective just how widespread the damage is,” he said.
While the cleanup continued in Kenora, overflowing dumpsters, torn-out drywall and stacks of damaged belongings became common sights in several neighbourhoods.
For residents like Fullmer and Robin, however, the storm’s impact extends well beyond what can be seen from the street.
Although the rain stopped after about an hour, recovery will take much, much longer.
