Cancel those travel plans

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/01/2011 (5693 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Owners of Winnipeg riverfront properties affected by previous Red River Valley floods should cancel any short-term travel plans and be prepared to fight another deluge this spring.

Roughly 800 Winnipeg properties may be affected by river flooding this spring, city officials warned after the first provincial flood forecast of the season pegged the scale of this spring’s deluge at somewhere between the 2009 and 1997 Red River Valley floods.

And even though the precise scope of the flood won’t be known for several months, all Winnipeggers should expect to be asked to help build sandbag dikes or welcome evacuees from other municipalities, Mayor Sam Katz, emergency preparedness co-ordinator Randy Hull and water and waste director Barry MacBride said Monday.

“Everybody’s going to have to roll up their sleeves at some point this spring,” Hull told reporters at a press briefing in city hall’s emergency operations centre. “We’re all going to be doing something this spring.”

Several city departments are working on the city’s flood plans, which call for raising dikes around low-lying properties, closing drainage gates to prevent rising river levels from swamping the city’s sewer system and ensuring pumping stations can handle rainfall or snowmelt that materializes while those gates are closed, MacBride said.

The city has stockpiled 800,000 sandbag sleeves and has ordered millions more, MacBride said. Four sandbag-filling machines have been taken out of storage and 30 truck-mounted pumps can be deployed to trouble spots, he and Hull added.

In the coming months, the owners of properties likely to be affected by the flood will be notified by mail or phone, as a prelude to property surveys and eventually the delivery of sandbags and assistance in building up dikes.

In the meantime, riverfront property owners are merely being asked to ensure they or someone else will be available to co-ordinate the protection of their properties.

“What we’re doing today is putting them on notice,” said Hull, adding riverfront property owners do not need to contact the city.

“Those folks know who they are from previous experience,” MacBride added. “They can be assured we’re thinking of them and we will contact them.”

Because of the threat of overland flooding while soil moisture levels remain high, all Winnipeg property owners are being asked to ensure their backwater valves and sump pumps are functioning. Details of a city-provincial incentive plan to purchase these flood-mitigation measures will be announced today.

The projected scale of river and overland flooding, which may affect every corner of southern Manitoba, has also led the city, the Canadian Red Cross and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority to make plans to receive thousands of evacuees, Hull said.

“This is not a City of Winnipeg flood. This is a Manitoba flood. Even if (Winnipeg) gets the best-case scenario for weather here there will still be pockets of the province affected,” he said.

The city received hundreds of evacuees in 2009 and tens of thousands in 1997.

The future volunteer effort will be co-ordinated through 311 and the city’s website. No volunteers are needed just yet, said Hull, praising the city for its strong track record of flood-fighting volunteerism.

“We’ve learned a lot in the past. We have a lot of experience,” added Katz. “We’ve started working early to be prepared for the situation, whatever that situation will be.

“But we know a flood is coming. It’s just a matter of what degree it’s going to be.”

City councillors will be briefed on the flood situation this morning. A press conference will follow.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca