Ste. Agathe booming since 'flood of the century'

Ten years ago this weekend, the Red River swallowed the town of Ste. Agathe, Man.But looking back on the disaster, some residents say the "flood of the century" was a good thing for the town.

Ste. Agathe, a village of 500 about 30 kilometres south of Winnipeg, was the first Manitoba community to lose the battle with the raging Red River in the spring of 1997.

Every home in Ste. Agathe was damaged as a metre of water swept through the community.

When the rebuilding began, Jeannot Robert helped plan the a new dike to protect the community.

"We didn't want to be closed in right around town tight with a wall of dirt," Robert said.

Twelve riverfront homes were demolished to accommodate the village's new, much-wider ring dike.

There wasn't much room left for new homes, so Robert and another resident purchased a farmer's field inside the dike and developed dozens of serviced lots.

Today, the north end of Ste. Agathe is bustling with the construction of 66 new homes.

Robert believes the flood is the best thing to happen to Ste. Agathe.

"If it hadn't been for the flood, I don't know if we would have all this burst of energy that everybody got —start building homes," he said.

"Ten years later, I can see that energy… because the town is now growing, homes are being built."

Rebuilding and expanding

Bob Stefaniuk, former mayor of the village, admits the flood forced some people to move out, but says others are rebuilding and expanding the village.

"They took their money that they would get for a house that was destroyed, and they took a mortgage out and added to it and built their dream home," he said.

Robert expects 60 more homes will be built in Ste. Agathe in the next two years.He hopes to build a recreation area for the young families now making the community their home.

In the years after the flood, Ste. Agathe also built the Red River Valley Floods Interpretive Centre on a parkthat wasrelocated inside the new ring dike.

The three-year-old centreallows students and tourists to learn aboutthe history of high water on the Red River —on a spot that was submerged during the "flood of the century."