Wettest Aug. 19 in 65 years wreaks havoc on Yellowknife buildings, boats

Roy Williams woke up to rain Saturday morning and thought he'd better go check his dock.

"That's when I discovered the biblical amount of water that was in each of the boats and started promptly to keep them from sinking."

Williams lives on the shores of Latham Island.

The water in the freighter canoe and fishing boat was up to his calf. It took Williams and his neighbours a few hours of bailing and pumping to empty them out.

All told, 28.6 mm of rain fell Saturday in Yellowknife, making it the rainiest August 19 the city has seen since 1942, when record-keeping began.

A few City of Yellowknife facilities also got wet. Some city employees had to relocate temporarily until electricity was restored to city hall.

Water also came through the roof of the public library. Manager John Mutford said staff was busy putting buckets out to catch the rain.

"They just started seeing the stains of course on ceiling tiles. And that started to build and build. One did come crashing down. Itdid make a splash, and no harm done."

According to Environment Canada, the third weekend of August is generally wet, and has been reliably rainy for the past five years.

The rainiest day on record in the N.W.T. happened in Aug. 15, 1973. It rained 82.8 mm.