Volunteers fill and haul sandbags in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews north of Winnipeg. (Neil Bryan/CBC)

Sandbagging efforts continued Saturday in communities along the Red River north of Winnipeg where massive ice jams and cold weather have disrupted the flow of the bulging river and caused flooding.

Authorities north of Winnipeg were calling Saturday for additional volunteers to help sandbag-protect homes along the Red near Lockport, Lower Fort Garry and in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews.

Meantime, Winnipeg harbour patrol officers were testing levels of river ice, trying to predict what's in store for the Manitoba capital as river levels are expected to rise due to warmer weather.

While flooding is a concern throughout the Red River Valley, and while ice jams are causing the Red to spill its banks north of Winnipeg, river ice within the city of Winnipeg itself could become a dangerous problem in the coming days, officials warned. The forecast for the Red River Valley north of the Canada-U.S. border calls for daytime high temperatures hovering near the freezing mark for the next few days.

But Winnipeg's emergency preparedness co-ordinator told CBC News that predictions in the wake of the cold weather aren't easy to make.

"We're on dry land trying to figure out what the river's going to do and how the ice will break," said Randy Hull. "It's really up to Mother Nature and the river itself. If we had an ice jam later in the week where we are at maybe 20.5 feet [above normal river-ice level] as forecasted by the Province of Manitoba, an ice jam would be a bit more problematic."

Currently, the Red River is 16.7 feet above normal winter ice conditions and the ice jams could create serious problems in a few days. Forecasters say a peak of 20.5 feet could occur in the city by next Friday if the Red River Floodway is not operation due to the ice jams.

About 80 properties within the city limits are presently at risk for flooding and those homeowners have been advised to make their sandbag dikes higher. Efforts to save the LaSalle Hotel near the Louise Bridge in downtown Winnipeg continued but the Red was rising perilously close to the top of sandbags due to downstream ice jams causing the river to back up.

About 17,000 sandbags are in place there, but a spokeswoman for the hotel made a plea for more volunteers Saturday since a total of 36,000 sandbags are needed.

Ice jams on the rising Red River are also creating problems with other bodies of water in the province.

Assiniboine River also rising

Senior flood forecaster Alf Warkentin said the Assiniboine River, which cuts through Winnipeg, is also rising.

It can't drain into the Red, which is backflowing because of ice jams. Ice buildup is so far preventing officials from opening the gate to the Winnipeg floodway south of the city.

"The Assiniboine River is backed up all the way to Assiniboine Park," said Warkentin. "There's a lot of people along the Assiniboine that are concerned about high levels, especially places closer to downtown."

Officials said the ice jam near Lower Fort Garry just north of Winnipeg didn't move Friday night. In some cases, water behind the jam rose one-third of a metre. Don Forfar, the reeve of St. Andrews, said volunteers are still needed to help with sandbagging efforts and that they should gather at the parking lot in Lower Fort Garry.

Last week, four rural municipalities just north of Winnipeg — St. Andrews, St. Clements, East St. Paul and West St. Paul — declared states of emergency as flooding washed out roads and submerged yards.

Steve Strang, the reeve of the Rural Municipality of St. Clements, northeast of Winnipeg, said in previous spring floods rural communities have had enough time to deal with flooding before the Red River crests.

This year, because of the a rapid freeze-thaw cycle, everything is happening at once. Strang said the outlook for property owners is grim once the weather warms up and water starts to flow again.

"All that snow is sitting on the ground and it's all going to start flowing again," said Strang. "And now we've got a river that's rising and our ditches are starting to back up because the level within the ditch is equal to that of the river, so if it's not going to flow into the river, where's it going to go? This is a huge concern."

Despite all of the new precipitation and the record flood levels in Fargo, N.D., the peak level predicted for Winnipeg itself has so far remained on par with that of the 1979 flood, which is considered the second-worst in the region.

Manitoba Water Stewardship spokesman Steve Topping has said there are two main reasons the levels for Winnipeg are expected to be lower than in Fargo: the snow pack is lower in Manitoba and the Red River channel through Winnipeg has a greater capacity to hold the water.

The crest of the Red River is predicted to hit Winnipeg between April 12-17.

Eighteen community ring dikes are in place on the Manitoba side of the Red River Valley, which means 95 per cent of the valley is protected, Topping said.