OCHRE RIVER, Man. — The sound of ice cracking echoes off Dauphin Lake.
Huge mounds of ice cover lawns, decks, even cabin roofs lining the southern shore.
Trevor Stokotelny sits with friends on lawnchairs behind his garage in Ochre River.
His family cabin at 46 Lakeview Dr. is a disaster.
A yellow “no entry” sign is taped to a fire place. It’s one of the only accessible and standing structures at his place.
“Cabin’s full of ice from floor to ceiling,” Stokotelny says.
The Winnipeg resident got a call Friday night from a family member saying an ice jam hit the cabin.
“It’s a writeoff,” he says.
“It’s a wind event, not an ice event. I’m not sure how insurance will cover it, but I’m hoping they’ll do something,” says Clayton Watts, the deputy reeve of the Rural Municipality (RM) of Ochre River.
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The wind was strong off the lake Friday evening, he says.
“People started calling me, saying the ice is moving.”
Two days later as he tours the area, Watts stops and chats with Stokotelny and his friends. They rehash the event that took less than 10 minutes and changed all their lives.
They talk damages, comparing Friday’s disaster to the 2011 flood.
That flood also caused major damages in the area, destroying many of the same cabins.
The conversation quickly turns to compensation.
“As cabin owners, we pay taxes just like residents,” says Stokotelny.
He adds he wants compensation to be “fair” to ratepayers.
All of the property-owners will have a chance to talk with disaster financial assistance officials from the province Tuesday.
Twenty-seven structures were hit by ice. Piles of the sharp, clear crystals left behind by rushing lake water now lie on the ground, reflecting the disbelief and shock of property owners and anyone else who witnesses the damage.
A state of emergency remains in effect in the area.
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