Winnipeg lucks out -- for now

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Enlarge Image 

An Amphibex ice-breaking machine works on the Red River in St. Norbert Friday near the South Perimeter bridge.

Winnipeg came within a few hours of seeing "worst-case scenarios" along the Red River within the city early Friday, Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said Friday afternoon.

"If we had decided not to operate the floodway, we would have seen some worst-case scenarios. We were potentially in range of breaching some of the city of winnipeg's protective dikes," said Ashton, who unexpectedly ordered the floodway into operation Wednesday.

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Heavy equipment used to break up ice near the floodway entrance looks like toys compared to the massive floes. (JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

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The Fort Garry bridge on Bishop Grandin Boulevard is clogged with ice on the Red River on Thursday. (JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

"I can't even imagine what would have happened if we'd hit 23.9" feet levels, instead of the 18.7-feet water levels Friday afternoon, Ashton said.

"I asked the question this morning, was it going to be a Good Friday?" he said. "It has been a good Friday, so far, absolutely."

Water Stewardship spokesman Steve Topping, the province's top flood fighter, said that several critical factors came together Friday and smiled on Winnipeg: Ice jams along Kingston Row moved two kilometers north, while ice was held up at the bridge in St. Adolphe at 2 a.m., and again at 5 and 11 a.m., and broke up into far smaller chunks before moving on the floodway gates, where they presented no problem.

That ice could have entered the city and jammed on top of the ice already there, or could have entered the floodway and jammed at St. Mary's Road, thus reducing the floodway's capacity by 75 per cent.

"What unfolded this morning was the best scenario that could have occurred," Topping said. By Friday afternoon, water flowed openly, he said.

"The floodway efficiency is totally restored. We are in familiar territory now," Topping said.

Water levels within the city were comfortably 5.2 feet below the worst levels the city could have seen, officials said. Emergency sandbagging plans got called off, and no evacuations were necessary.

Still...

"We are not out of challenges yet, so long as there is any ice," Ashton said. "This day's not over yet -- we're watching this on an hour-by-hour basis."

The crest will not reach Winnipeg until about Thursday, and about 10 mm of rain will fall this weekend combined with rapidly increasing melting as temperatures climb into double digits.

The province is monitoring ice jams in Selkirk, and may soon order Dominion City to close its ring dike completely, Topping said.

He expected that Highway 75 would have to remain closed for another two weeks or so.

"The crest will still come. There will be significant flooding," Ashton said.

About 40 homes in the Breezy Point area north of Selkirk received an evacuation order Friday because their access roads were cut off, said the provincial officials, who pointed out that most of those properties affected are unoccupied summer homes.

Don Brennan, the acting executive director of Manitoba Emergency Measures Organization, said that gawkers and sightseers have been interfering with flood control operations, to the point that police have been called to keep them away.

"We've had people put boats out on the river, where there's debris underneath," Brennan said. Even if you don't value your own life, said Brennan, "Don't have disregard for people who have to come and rescue you."

RCMP said they will begin ticketing this morning any motorists who create hazardous traffic conditions by watching flood operations.

Winnipeg emergency preparedness co-ordinator Randy Hull heaped praise on more than 400 volunteers who answered an emergency sandbagging call Thursday night and showed up on south Osborne Street on Friday ready to work all day, only to learn the immediate threat was gone.

"People cheered and applauded. There was no disappointment, just a lot of relief," Hull said.

The arrival of eager sandbaggers was a welcome sight; however, the almost constant parade of flood gawkers continued to get in the way of officials Friday, with city police stationed at Turnbull Drive off Hwy. 75 to turn away anyone who didn't belong in the area.

Meanwhile, south of Winnipeg, St. Norbert resident Rick Thiessen surveyed the river Friday from atop a two-week-old earthen dike, built around his home after he realized the threat to the riverfront property could be greater than initially expected.

High waters around his home are nothing unusual, he said, but this year's levels were the highest since 1997. Thiessen and his wife have their valuables packed in boxes, ready to be moved at a moment's notice if necessary.

"It feels like you're at somebody else's mercy," he said. "You realize you don't have any control over anything."

Thiessen's house is too close to the river for him to build a permanent dike -- hence the temporary earthen one.

A break in an ice jam meant the water level had already dropped by 12 to 14 inches around his house by Friday, Thiessen said, as the faint sounds of crackling ice signalled river levels were still declining.

But he said he's concerned about the unpredictability of future ice jams, and the waters still moving into Manitoba from south of the border.

"We're in the lull before the storm," he said.

-- with files from Lindsey Wiebe

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 11, 2009 A4