‘River has cut its own course’: Temporary dam built to protect flood ravaged homes in Pinkerton

Pinkerton, a small town near Walkerton, is recovering after severe flooring left several homes underwater. CTV’s Scott Miller reports.

It’s been just over a week since the Teeswater River decided to cut its own path through the hamlet of Pinkerton, leaving several homes underwater.

“This is an incredible one in a 100-year flood on the Teeswater River, and a 100-foot-wide breach of an earthen dam. And it’s redirected the flow of the river right towards these houses, down at the bottom of the village of Pinkerton,” explained Brockton Mayor Chris Peabody.

On March 12, heavy rainfall coupled with a large snowmelt powered the Teeswater River to cut a massive hole in a privately owned hydroelectric earthen dam on the edge of Pinkerton.

The rush of water cut an entirely new path through Pinkerton, into the basements and backyards of seven homes and covering the only road through town in raging water.

A week later, and the road isn’t underwater for the first time, but the flood waters remain.

“Nothing got carried off the foundation, remarkably so. One family did evacuate, but they’ve moved back in,” said Peabody.

With spring showers surely on their way, and no way to reach the burst dam until the raging river subsides, the Municipality of Brockton has reached into their emergency funds to build a temporary dam out of large sand bags around the affected homes, aside from an unoccupied home right at the water’s edge.

Local contractors, along with county and municipal staff, installed the temporary dike on Friday.

“We had to take some emergency action, because with the breach being open through the rest of flood season and thunderstorm season, it can’t be repaired till the summer. And then these houses and the people living in them are still vulnerable,” Peabody said.

“So as mayor and along with my CAO, we took money out of our own emergency funds for Brockton and built this emergency dam. It gives me, as mayor, peace of mind that if there is a thunderstorm event that any surge of water through that breach will be diverted back towards the river instead of through the houses,” he added.

The $50,000 temporary dam is just that - temporary. Peabody says the owners of the busted earthen dam have committed to closing the gap busted apart by the Teeswater River, but that won’t happen for months, due to the current raging waters.

“The power of the river is just incredible. The breach has created its own set of rapids, brand new through a forest, and then back into the river and then its own little tributary that flows into these houses,” said Peabody.

As for Bruce Road 15 through Pinkerton, it will have to be repaired but that too is weeks, if not months away. Roads through town will remain closed, indefinitely says Peabody, who adds while there is hope the worst of the flooding is behind Pinkerton, there will be a lot of damage left behind once the flood waters eventually subside in the Bruce County village.