Manitoba flood evacuees waiting for temporary homes

Some rural Manitobans left homeless from last year's floods are still waiting for temporary houses the provincial government promised them months ago.

Manitoba Housing provided $3 million for 16 prefabricated homes to be installed in the Rural Municipality of St. Laurent, which was devastated by some of the worst flooding along Lake Manitoba last spring.

But while the homes were promised months ago, only six of them have been set up, St. Laurent Reeve Earl Zotter told CBC News. Four of the houses were delivered in December, and two more arrived over the weekend.

Annette and Joseph Viallet's prefabricated house arrived on Sunday.

Annette Viallet said while she is grateful to have a temporary home, she wishes she could return to her original home, which was damaged andinfested with mouldas a result of the flooding.

"You work all your life to make yourself a nice home for your retirement, and then one split second and it's destroyed," she said on Sunday.

"Seven, going on eight months laterstill no answers. We don't know any more than we did [on] the first day that it happened. There's got to be something wrong with the system."

Zotter and Viallet said 60 families in St. Laurent were originally interested in the prefabricated homes, but the delays have forced many of them to find accommodations outside the municipality.

"It's awful, it's disgusting. Back in June, they had demand for 60 homes, but people got fed up of waiting and they found their own accommodations, and now they don't want to come back," Viallet said.

Zotter said he was told that Manitoba Housing had forgotten to order the temporary homes.

Officials with Manitoba Housing would not confirm or deny Zotter's claim, but told CBC News more houses are on the way.