Hospital still evaluating extent of damage from flooding

Lake of the Woods District Hospital says as much as 25 percent of the building was damaged by the flood earlier this week.

An infrastructure failure on the fourth floor affected a number of departments, including the surgical unit.

Cheryl O’Flaherty is president and CEO of the hospital and says they are thankful for the help they have received.

“We are grateful for the coordinated response and support from both the Provinces of Ontario and Manitoba,” says O’Flaherty.

“We also extend our sincere appreciation to our regional hospital partners, who have stepped up and continue to support us during this time. As we work closely with Emergency Measures teams, we are actively and urgently exploring additional options to help stabilize services.”

The hospital says all surgeries have now been cancelled to the end of the month.

As many as 200 people are directly affected.

Due to scale of the damage, recovery will take longer than hoped.

A clearer understanding of the timelines involved is expected by the end of next week.