Heavy equipment operators and volunteers in Minnedosa are racing to place thousands of sandbags and build levees to protect properties from the rising Little Saskatchewan River.
The southwestern Manitoba city declared a local state of emergency Tuesday over flooding in the area.
Now, Minnedosa is bracing for things to get worse.
The province planned to remove the logs from the Minnedosa dam on Wednesday to relieve pressure on it, which could raise water levels in the city several more inches, said Jim Doppler, the city’s managing director.
In an update Wednesday night, Doppler said the first records were removed around 4:30 p.m., raising water levels about two inches. But with the water receding during the day, he expected the water to “level off” by 8 p.m.
“We have some areas that we’re monitoring, but we have a level of confidence that we’re going to be okay,” he said.
Instead of removing more logs later that day, which was the original plan, Doppler said engineers and provincial authorities will meet Thursday morning to reevaluate before taking further action to relieve pressure on the dam.
Earlier in the day, Doppler said continuing rain and thunderstorms in the area have not helped.
“We don’t have our super sandbags yet and we’re trying to contain the water as it is, so more precipitation won’t help us.”
Upstream flows along the Little Saskatchewan River in Minnedosa are at a record level and are expected to increase as the area is hit by more rain, according to the director of the Manitoba hydrological forecasting center.
Although log removal was expected to cause a temporary rise, it will allow river water to flow more easily and hopefully reduce water levels in the area in general, Fisaha Unduche said during a flood forecast update on Wednesday. in the afternoon.
Sandbags before the surge
Crews had been out since 8 am, but by Wednesday afternoon they still had two sites to finish sandbagging, with between 50 and 100 meters of work to be done at each site, Doppler said.
Earlier this week, the province said it was tracking a weather system that could bring 20 to 50 millimeters of rain to southern Manitoba over the next five days.
An update posted on the city’s Facebook page at noon Wednesday says water levels dropped overnight, but could quickly rise again depending on the amount and intensity of rain.
Doppler says people living in 30 properties have been warned they could be at risk, and as of Wednesday afternoon, seven people had left their homes on their own. However, no mandatory evacuation notices have been issued at this time, she says.
“Certainly there are a number of houses that have water around them and are fighting hard to save their property,” he said.
Minnedosa received 2,000 super sandbags, 40,000 small sandbags and pumps from the province on Tuesday. The town was also looking for volunteers to make and move 30,000 sandbags to protect low-lying areas.
The hope is that once the super sandbags, once in place, can contain any rise in water levels, Doppler said.
In addition to the sandbags, the town is dumping gravel on Second Avenue NE, one of the areas being reinforced with sandbags.
The fight against floods moves west
During Wednesday’s flood forecast update, Manitoba Infrastructure Minister Doyle Piwniuk said he was part of an aerial tour of the province’s flooded regions over the weekend to see the extent of the damage.
A staff member who has been on the ground in western Manitoba described ground-based flooding in the region like a tsunami, coming from all directions, Piwniuk said.
The province has dealt with unusual weather patterns this spring, Unduche said, with most basins in southern and central Manitoba receiving 150 percent more rainfall than normal since April.
“That’s the intensity and the amount of rain that we’ve been dealing with.”
Most of the rivers in Manitoba’s southern watershed have peaked, but the province is now focusing on flooding in the Westman and Parkland regions that has caused significant damage, he said.
As of Tuesday, 39 municipalities in Manitoba had declared states of local emergency, not including First Nations, the province says.
Reference-www.cbc.ca