Flood water flows to northern communities

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This article was published 25/05/2011 (5520 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Communities along the Nelson River are bracing for the highest water in more than three decades, as the flood of 2011 works its way to northern Manitoba.

The potential for a near-record flood on the Nelson River this summer has the town of Cross Lake and Pimicikamak Cree Nation preparing to shore up bridges and causeways that connect the neighbouring communities to the rest of Manitoba.

The Nelson River drains Lake Winnipeg, which is creeping higher every day due to record flooding in the Assiniboine River basin, a major Red River flood and significant inflows from the Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and Fairford rivers.

Lake Winnipeg is expected to level off in early July at 716 feet above sea level. While the lake is above 715 feet, Manitoba Hydro is required to send as much water as it can through the turbines and spillways at the Crown corporation’s Jenpeg generating station, which is located at one of two Nelson River channels north of the province’s largest lake.

The high flows will create flood conditions at the Cross Lake communities as well as at Split Lake further downstream, Manitoba Hydro division manager David Cormie said.

The Nelson River is expected to peak at Cross Lake toward the end of June at 685.7 feet above sea level, which is roughly four feet above the average level at that time of year, according to Manitoba Hydro.

“This would be close to the highest water level at Cross Lake since Lake Winnipeg regulation began in 1977,” a spokesman for Manitoba Water Stewardship said in a statement.

Cross Lake experienced similar water levels in 2005, the only other time since regulation began that Lake Winnipeg rose above 716 feet.

The main threat posed by the high water involves bridges along Provincial Road 374, which connects Cross Lake and Pimicikamak Cree Nation to PR 373 and Highway 6.

“We already see the high water,” said Darlene Beck, Cross Lake’s chief administrative officer. “We’re most concerned about our causeways right now and we’re working with Manitoba Hydro. The water has also eroded some of the areas where we have our water-and-sewer lines.”

Manitoba Hydro will help both the town and the First Nation — home to approximately 6,500 people — protect the causeways against flooding to ensure road access is not threatened, Beck said. Rock riprap is being placed along water and sewer lines.

“We’re pretty confident. If we get the help we need, we should be OK,” she said. “(Some) are worried if we get a strong wind, we’ll end up like Lake Manitoba. We’ll just take it as it comes.”

Homes in the area are built at higher elevations and likely are not threatened by flood waters, said Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief Garrison Settee.

Further downstream, the Nelson River is expected to peak at Split Lake in early July at 553.2 feet above sea level, which is about five feet above normal, but still below the level experienced in 2005, Manitoba Hydro predicted.

Water levels on the Nelson River will remain high all year, said Manitoba Hydro’s Cormie.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca