Svjetlana mlinarevic

Svjetlana Mlinarevic

The Graphic

July 4, 2014

 

The Government of Manitoba has called a state of emergency due to rising water levels in the province.

 

During a press conference on Friday, Premier Greg Selinger announced he had spoken with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and asked for military aid in dealing with rising water levels.

 

“We have seen increasing levels of water these past days and weeks all across the Prairies. There is much more water on the way to Manitoba due to the extraordinary rains in Saskatchewan and Manitoba last weekend,” said Selinger.

 

Officials are now expecting flows on the Assiniboine River similar to the flood of 2011. Selinger said there is currently 48,000 cfs to 52,000 cfs of water coming into the Portage reservoir.

 

In order to deal with all the water, the province is producing 500,000 additional sandbags to reinforce the Assiniboine dike on top of the two million sandbags and 17,000 super sandbags already in stock. A unified command post has already been set up in Portage la Prairie to work with effected communities.

 

The military will help with sand bagging homes east of Portage and to deal with “hotspots” that appear on the dikes.

Canadian Forces are expected to arrive overnight on Friday and early Saturday to begin work.

 

The province is estimating 200 homes need to be protected in the rural municipalities of Portage la Prairie, Headingly, Cartier and St. Francis Xavier.

 

The province said evacuations have already taken place and that government is in contact with 560 local emergency management committees through their command centre.

 

Water levels

 

“This is an unprecedented flash flooding that we’re seeing this summer,” said Steve Topping, executive director of the Hydrologic Forecasting and Water Management branch of Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation. “Normally a crest will build, for instance in Brandon, it would take three weeks in a spring run off event. This storm ended on Sunday and they could see their crest on Saturday/Sunday this week coming. So, it is building much faster.”

 

The province expects to see the crest hit the Portage reservoir by July 11 where water levels are expected to reach 18,000 cfs on the lower Assiniboine River between Portage and Headingly, with the Portage Diversion taking the balance.

A second crest is expected to hit the larger tributaries such as Pipestone Creek, which flows from Saskatchewan, which are expected to increase the duration of the flood.

 

The government has spent more than $20 million on the Assiniboine dikes since the beginning of the 2011 flood. Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation Minister Steve Ashton noted some of the dikes in the province are more than 100 years old and that engineering work has been done reconstructing elements of the dikes.

 

“The assumption here is that there will be areas of seepage. There are weak areas, but again, without a full reconstruction, you deal with the geo-technical situation. This will be a 24/7 operation,” he said.

 

Doug McMahon, the assistant deputy minister with MIT, said that there is poor access, a lot of vegetation, and that seepage and rainstorms have compromised access to some areas of the 160 kilometres of provincial dikes in the Portage area.

 

McMahon added a flood mitigation study is underway on the Assiniboine River basin and Lake Manitoba to identify the long-term capacity of those dikes downstream of Portage.

 

“Right now, the pinch point is 18,000 cfs that we have for capacity down there. We’re going to be identifying a longer-term capacity in the diking network there that will provide us a longer-term focus on the dikes and that’s where our longer-term efforts are going to be. Now, our focus is on maintaining the existing dikes to handle the existing flows,” he said.

 

As to compensation for farmers, Selinger said the province has excess moisture insurance and that insurance has gone up from the basic $50 an acre up to $100 an acre.

 

“In terms of agriculture stability and agriculture recovery those programs will be available and we will take action on them to ensure producers get the maximum benefits from those programs,” he said. “I don’t think there is any doubt that there will be a recovery process.”

 

When asked whether the province will access the federal AGRA recovery program, Selinger said he will wait for a recommendation from Agricultural Minister Gerry Ritz before taking that step.

 

“We have been through this all too recently. During the 2011 flood I remember the great pride we felt, and I felt, as we came together to look after each other. I know that same fighting spirit will be evident in the days ahead,” said Selinger.

 

In 2011, the Portage Diversion was in operation for 126 days — the longest in its 29-year history.