With the threat of a Saskatchewan winter closing in on them, the majority of Roche Percee residents forced from their homes during the spring flooding have found a place to live until their residences can either be repaired or rebuilt.
In an interview with The Mercury Monday, Roche Percee Mayor Reg Jahn said all but a few residents have been able to find a place for themselves and their families with people seeking refuge in Estevan, Bienfait, Lampman and Oxbow.
"Everybody will be looked after this winter and will be warm," said Jahn who noted that plans for a temporary subdivision in Roche Percee to house families have been scrapped. "Part of that was people have to take charge of their own lives and start moving forward and if we put in a temporary subdivision that would deter them from doing that."
With many of their residents taken care of for the winter, Jahn said the next step is looking at issues in the village.
As was reported previously in The Mercury, the provincial government has recommended over 30 homes in the village be demolished due to the damage they suffered during the floods.
Jahn said a handful of residents have settled their claims with the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program and signed a waiver with the village that will clear the way for destruction of the impacted homes. He added there are still a handful of residents who have yet to settle their claims with PDAP and no action will be taken until that process is complete.
"They have to sign a waiver with the Village," said Jahn who added that some residents have been happy with their claims while others have been underwhelmed. "PDAP had said they were pretty impressed with the number of people that have signed off on their offer. From some of them I've heard of, it has been pretty fair. There are some that are low but by and large I think most of them have been fair. The government has worked very well with everybody and the government agencies especially."
As for the future of Roche Percee, Jahn said there are some people who are determined to rebuild their homes in the low lying areas of the village that were hit the hardest. He added they are also speaking with a developer about building homes in the higher area of the village.
"We've heard that quite a few people are rebuilding. A couple of people are rebuilding on the bottom. We have to go out and clarify the numbers but it does look good. Some people won't be able to take the stress of what happened and some have said they bought fixer-uppers and as soon as they are fixed up and sold, they will be looking at relocating back to the village. We can look forward to that."
Jahn added another focus of the Village's is getting their dikes repaired before winter hits. Roche Percee's dike system suffered severe damage when the flood waters hit their highest peak and overtopped them in June.
"We were kind of hoping that we would have had that settled by now, but everybody is super busy and it has been putting a strain on the contractors. One contractor told us 'if you could find the people to run my equipment I'd do it.'"
