Manitoba's Dominion City declares state of emergency to brace for flood
Red River expected to crest in Winnipeg around April 12
Last Updated: Monday, March 23, 2009 | 7:13 PM CT
CBC News
Dominion City became the first Manitoba community to declare a state of emergency Monday to deal with the spring thaw and rains that have begun to raise water levels and threaten to flood some areas of the province.
Officials in the town, about 20 kilometres north of the Canada-U.S. border, made the announcement Monday. The region is already experiencing overland flooding and bracing for more with snow in the forecast.
The state-of-emergency status enables the town to access provincial resources to prepare for further flooding.
Dominion City is located in the rural municipality of Franklin, about 80 kilometres south of Winnipeg. The region around the town was evacuated during the 1997 flood, and since then, a community ring dike has been built.
No residents have yet had to evacuate their homes, according to town officials.
The provincial government announced Monday that it is looking at closing at least two ring dikes in other Manitoba communities and partially closing 11 others as the threat of flooding continues to grow.
Provincial emergency and water stewardship officials held a media briefing Monday, saying the ring dikes at Riverside and at Roseau River, both south of Winnipeg, might be shut.
The population of Riverside is about 55 people while Roseau River has approximately 800.
Manitoba's Emergency Measures Organization is also considering evacuation plans for some communities as Highway 75, which goes directly south from Winnipeg to the U.S. border, could be closed at times depending on rising water levels.
The Red River is expected to crest in Emerson, Manitoba's border town with the United States, somewhere around April 5-10 and in Winnipeg around April 12 to 17.
The flooding concerns have been exacerbated by a series of complex weather systems expected to generate a lot of precipitation in Manitoba over the next few days. Almost the entire province was under some type of weather watch or warning on Monday.
Rain has been falling in southern Manitoba, including Winnipeg, since Sunday afternoon and more is forecast. A winter storm watch has been issued by Environment Canada as a "Colorado low" pushes northward from the United States into Manitoba.
Rain, then snow
The system will initially bring more rain, which will then turn into snow as the temperatures drop on Tuesday through Thursday. Winnipeg is expected to receive five to 10 centimetres of snow on top of the 10 millimetres of rain that will accumulate by Monday evening.
Any rain that falls north or south of the U.S.-Canada border will turn into run-off because of the high water table and frozen ground, according to CBC meteorologist John Sauder.
That run-off will add to the already bloated river levels around the province.
Meanwhile, a low-pressure system that is producing heavy snow over much of northern Saskatchewan is heading into Manitoba's north. Accumulations of five to 10 centimetres of snow are expected in the east and central regions of northern Saskatchewan as the system moves eastward.
Already, travel is not advised on Provincial Road 384 between Moose Lake and The Pas in central Manitoba. Ice-covered roads and poor visibility from blowing snow have made driving treacherous.
Buses take alternate routes around flooding
In Winnipeg, rain and warm temperatures have filled streets — and some basements — with water. Winnipeg transit reported having to reroute buses Monday morning because of overland flooding. In south Transcona on McFadden Avenue, overflowing ditches spilled water across the road.
The ditches in much of Charleswood were also full and at least one street, McCreary Road, was under water. City crews were also working on flooding on McGillivray Boulevard between Kenaston Boulevard and Brady Road.
John Taylor Collegiate in St. James was closed Monday after water began seeping into the basement. Clean up crews were at work and the school is expected to be open for classes Tuesday, school officials said.
'We've got the dike higher, but it doesn't mean nothing. In '97, they [provincial officials] said we would be fine — we weren't going to be flooded. Once you have been hit that hard, you are really leery of what they say [ever again].'—Rita Bartmanovich
On Red River Road, just off Hwy. 75, Rita Bartmanovich has been watching water seep into the commercial greenhouse she operates on property where she lives with her husband.
The 1997 flood destroyed the couple's home, outside the protection of the floodway, and Bartmanovich said the speed at which the water has started to come this spring is already unsettling.
"I've never seen it come like this in all the years we've had the greenhouse here," she said.
Bartmanovich said her husband is in poor health and the couple will have to move out if the area floods. There's no way they can fight back the flood.
"We've got the dike higher, but it doesn't mean nothing. In '97, they [provincial officials] said we would be fine — we weren't going to be flooded. Once you have been hit that hard, you are really leery of what they say [ever again]."
South of the border, in Fargo, N.D., the U.S. National Weather Service has forecast a high probability of the Red River approaching flood levels not seen since 1997.
Forecasters predict this year the Red will crest in Fargo at more than 10.5 metres, with the flood stage pegged at 5.4 metres. The crest in 1997 was 12 metres.
Citizen volunteers and members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent the weekend packing sandbags.
Fargo Mayor Dennis Wallacher said they are producing nearly 300,000 sandbags a day now, helped in part by two Canadian-made machines the city purchased last week.
"They are just the slickest thing. There is lots less physical effort that is needed," he said. "They don't have to lift the bags or hold the bags — they come out on a table. So we have two of the machines going right now plus our old machines."
The goal is to pack 1.5 million sandbags but the possibility of slightly colder temperatures could make deploying the bags a challenge.
Freezing weather could slow sandbagging
"The problem gets to be with the colder temperatures is the placement of sandbags. You can't do anything with little rocks — bags of rocks," Wallacher said. "It just doesn't work. You need some temperatures that are above freezing."
North of Fargo, in Grand Forks, N.D., the weather service projects a crest of around 15 metres, with a 10 per cent chance it will top the 16.2-metre level reached in 1997. Flood stage in Grand Forks is 8.4 metres.
Provincial flood forecasters in Manitoba are predicting the second-highest water level on record, equal to that of 1979. That flood is ranked second only to 1997, which caused $4.4 billion in damage along the Red River valley between Winnipeg and Grand Forks, and forced about 80,000 people from their homes.
But on Friday, provincial officials declared Manitoba is in a high state of readiness for flooding, ready to handle whatever comes along. Evacuations plans are in place, if necessary, and Winnipeg is ready to bring in the displaced, said Mayor Sam Katz.
A $600-million-plus expansion project to deepen the floodway channel around Winnipeg is nearly complete, but already provides "significantly greater flood protection today than we did in 1997," the Manitoba Floodway Authority's Ronuk Modha has said.
Even with the floodway protection, however, Winnipeg officials are preparing for the possibility that almost 300 homes will have to be sandbagged.
