‘Here we go again’: North Kildonan homeowners throw up hands after basements swamped by sewage — for second time in week

A North Kildonan resident thought he was having a heart attack Monday as he watched feces-filled water enter his home for the second time in less than a week.

Michael Koncur, 56, has lived on Oakland Avenue for approximately 15 years, but it was only last week when the city was swamped by storms did sewage in his basement become a problem.

Koncur has $10,000 in insurance coverage but an adjuster estimated the damage at $25,000. He’s already spent $3,000 on cleanup. When his toilet started to gurgle again on Monday, he was horrified.

“I figured ‘Oh my God. Here we go again,’” he said. “I walked into my bathroom just in time again to see feces coming up my shower drain.”

When the first round of flooding hit during a torrential rainstorm last Tuesday, Koncur said he didn’t know how to react — it had never happened before — but when his basement bathroom started to flood again, he said panic washed over him.

“My chest was pounding so hard, I thought I was going to drop from a heart attack,” he said. “I can’t even tell you the stress level.”

He said his basement resembles a garbage dump, filled with debris and garbage trash, as a result of the previous flooding. He said the entire situation has been a hit to his mental health and pocketbook.

“What was going through my mind today was: ‘I can’t afford for this to happen again,’” he said.

Koncur said this time, the water receded before causing further mayhem but he’s worried more rain will arrive before he can get a backwater valve installed on Friday.

“We are living in a panic,” he said.

Koncur said he doesn’t know why 2026 has been so bad for soakings, saying others on the street have had similar experiences.

“It’s not a homeowner issue,” he said. “There’s many, many, many people that are going through this.”

He said while he hasn’t reached out to the city directly, he hopes posting on social media and speaking to media will help bring some attention and action to the issue.

He also said for people who have been hit twice, the City of Winnipeg should step up to help cover costs, as he feels the back-to-back backups is a municipal issue.

“I just hope this never happens again,” he said, noting the flooding has happened at a time when his water bill has “doubled” in the last year.

“Something needs to be done. There’s an infrastructure problem.”

Between June 9 and Tuesday at noon, 311 received 210 reports of clean-water backups, 248 reports of raw-sewage backups and nine reports of basements swamped due to overland flooding, the city said.

Homes on Oakland Avenue are in a combined sewer district “where there is a greater risk of sewer backup” with many constructed in the 1950s, the city said in a statement. It noted crews were in the area Tuesday and preliminary reports indicated there “are no problems with the infrastructure.”

“Sewer backup was likely due to a combination of the combined sewers being surcharged during the rainstorm, and a lack of, or poorly functioning, backwater valves and sump pits,” said the statement. “Homeowners are responsible for taking measures to maintain their drainage pipes and systems. The city accepts no liability for loss or damage relating to plumbing issues on private property.”

Tim Shanks, Winnipeg’s director of water and waste, said while the city is working to improve its sewer and wastewater systems, there are times where it will be overwhelmed.

“The city is trying to do what it can do on its end for the larger part of the system, but homeowners have to make sure they’re doing what they can,” he said. “Rainfall can really surcharge a sewer system. It can be three, four, 10 times the flow. It’s an enormous amount of water that can overwhelm the system.”

Shanks said things like properly installed weeping tile, backflow valves and sump-pump retrofits will help homeowners keep basements dry.

First-time homeowner Andrew Van Seggelen, who lives on McLeod Avenue, said he had flashbacks to last week when he saw online posts about flooding in his neighbourhood. He rushed home from work and found the water had already receded, leaving behind another “deluge of sludge and feces.”

Van Seggelen, 38, whose basement was also hit twice, said the city has to step up and be accountable to residents in North Kildonan, as the cleanup is taking its toll.

“The amount of hours that I’ve put into ripping out drywall … cleaning up things, the hours are countless and the countless hours of missed sleep and missed work; everything is adding up for sure.”

He said the situation is giving him second thoughts about home ownership.

“It really sucks to spend basically my entire life, scrawling and crawling and saving … to purchase our first house, then for something like this to happen within the first six months, it’s heartbreaking.”

Mayor Scott Gillingham said the city is spending about $45 million annually to address combined sewer overflow, as a “major program and initiative” to try to stop basement flooding.

“(It’s) an over billion-dollar program to try and reduce obviously diluted raw sewage from going into the river, but also, to prevent basement flooding,” said Gillingham.

morgan.modjeski@freepress.mb.ca