The heavy rain on Canada Day caused extensive damage throughout Yorkton, including impacting a number of businesses which remain closed for indefinite periods of time.
Morris Industries on York Road was hit hard as the winds associated with the storm ripped the roof off the administration area of their building.
"The roof got literally peeled off with the storm that was there," said Morris Communications Manager Darrel Schindel.
Schindel said the company is still assessing the extent of the damage.
"There's pretty extensive water damage," he noted.
Fortunately the storm hit on a holiday, so no one was in administration, and the production floor is on a scheduled shut-down, so no employees were impacted, said Schindel.
"It was fortunate nobody was in the building," he said. "At the end of the day building and mortar can be replaced."
Schindel said the company is already looking at temporary office space options, and the extent of damaged to equipment, including the company's computer server hub will be determined over the next few days.
"We'll have IT personnel on site," he said, adding until they get their internal server connections up and running it will slow down damage assessment efforts.
"It's all a work in progress."
Gerald Lemcke just purchased Sears in Yorkton about a month ago, he said he was worried about his business and tried to check it out Thursday night.
"I tried to come Thursday night but some of the roads were blocked.
When he got to the store Friday morning, Lemcke found a mess.
"When I walked in there was a little bit of water on the floor," he said. "Then I looked down the stairs and saw a foot-and-a-half of water."
The basement is where all the appliances are stored. He said about half a million dollars worth of refrigerators, stoves and other appliances in storage, all of which were in water, and will have to be removed.
"They have to be pulled out one-by-one (on a small lift), and shipped back to Regina," he said. "That's going to be a long day."
Fortunately, the water on the main floor didn't stop Sears from opening Friday.
"I actually opened early," said Lemcke. "There was a line up of people waiting when I got here."
Lemcke said there has been a steady demand for dehumidifiers, shop vacuums and other equipment to help fight the flood.
McDonald's, Dairy Queen, and other businesses in the same area experienced heavy flooding during the storm and its aftermath.
Dairy Queen manager Mark Butchko estimated that between four and five feet of water and sewage reached the restaurant's basement, where the majority of its valuable equipment is kept. Ruined machines were seen floating around the room. Butchko is unsure how high the water reached on the main floor, because he and his staff evacuated on Thursday night while the level was still rising."There is a substantial amount of damage," he said.
The restaurant is considering starting from scratch - this time in a two-storey building with no basement. But it's too early to make any decisions, said Butchko.
"We're still in the works with insurance and inspectors and that."
"It's been a lot of sleepless nights," he added.
McDonald's is in a similarly uncertain situation.
"We're shut down, I don't know for how long," said manager Dean Shyiak. "All I can say is it's going to be a while."
"We're looking at all our options."
