With the spring thaw and culverts on many country roads still frozen closed, Laurel Plett who owns “Dogs on the Run” Dog Daycare and Boarding west of Steinbach, knew she would be in trouble as water started to gather on her property Wednesday morning, and it was quickly rising.

“I started to panic,” Plett says, recalling the unplanned events of her 60th birthday. Celebrations were pushed to the back of her mind while she focused on the problem of overland flooding on her property. During their 11 years of living on this propery, they have experienced this type of flooding only once, and her husband Barry had taken care of that event.

lot of help, she was reluctant to post her dilemma on social media. After some urging from her son, she put out a call. It did not take long for her to realize that she would not have to handle this flooding event on her own.

“I put it on Facebook and literally in 15 minutes, there was men pulling on my yard and customers of mine had seen the post,” Plett recalls. “One customer is in Mexico, called their son, who called a friend and literally in 15 minutes there was guys with trucks and pumps and hoses, and they just started hooking them up.”

Plett was baffled by the quick response and by the number of people who showed up to help.

“I walked out, and I just looked at them and they just were working,” she recalls. “And I said, ‘I don't even know you.’ And then they said, ‘Oh, I'm so and so I know your husband’ and then they just started working and then somebody else would come. And there was a group of them, and they worked all day.”

She says some of them stayed through the night because the water was high and required work. Then different people came by to bring more fuel to keep the generators going, Plett adds.

Greg Penner, who also lives nearby, came to offer his help.

“By the time I got there, there were a few guys already there,” says Penner. “They had a couple of pumps going and had called Pete’s Landscaping to bring in 10 yards of sand so I could build up a dike around her shop to keep the water from continuing to grow on her yard.”

Once the water was contained, several more pumps were brought in. Penner says it was an all-night process.

“We had five pumps going through the night from 4:30am till 7 o'clock roughly pushing about 2,700 gallons of water per minute,” he says.

Water runs over the road in the area of McKenzie Avenue and Bush Farm Road on Thursday.

Penner reports the water level dropped in the ditch because of overland flooding and, “Thank God it cooled down here overnight. I think we got it under control overnight.”

Penner also mentions other helpers like Rob Martens, Ryan Kiansky, Braden Penner, Marty Rempel, Friesen Hauling, Pete’s Landscaping and crews from the R.M. of Hanover.

“If it wasn't for them helping here, it would all be lost,” says Penner. “But the community helps, right?”

What about the birthday plans?

Plett had already decided she would cancel dinner celebrations and stay home, but nobody would accept that idea.

“Those guys just looked at me and said ‘Nope, you are going to your birthday, and we will take care of this.’ And again, that's when I fell apart," Plett says. "They gave me hugs, some of these men that I didn't even know. It just made my day.”

Plett went out to celebrate her birthday with family and said she had a great time. When she returned home after dinner, she saw the guys were still there, working on protecting her property and buildings.

Water fills ditches around Bush Farm Road and McKenzie Avenue.

“We got some pizza brought in so that they could eat, and they were working this morning (Thursday) when I got up. And now they've got the water at bay.” Plett says. “The problem isn't over because there's a bunch of water sitting clogged at the other side of Pankratz Farms. And next week, when it gets warm again, it's going to come this way so. We're just trying to be ready and figuring out what to do so this doesn't happen again.”

Penner agrees, saying there is still a lot of water in that area of Bush Farm Road and along 34N (the old Hanover Road).

Meanwhile, Plett says this kind of response to her plea for help was “absolutely touching.”

She adds, there's so much going on in the world right now and she “just sat back and watched this complete love fill this yard.”

Plett offered to pay the kindhearted and hardworking people for helping her out, but none of them would accept payment.

“I can't believe it,” she says. “It's just amazing.”

-With files from Corny Rempel, Dave Anthony