Dikes holding — for now

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This article was published 07/06/2011 (5483 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

LUNDAR BEACH — There is no calm here before the next storm they all know is coming.

Wary of the damage high water and wind have done to communities farther south along the shores of Lake Manitoba, the work continues on dikes and sandbags needed to hold back the rising water from the homes in its path.

They were lucky here during last week’s windstorm, as the roughly 100 houses and cottages barely survived the onslaught that forced the evacuation of St. Laurent, Twin Lakes Beach and Delta Beach.

One dike in Lundar was breached in the middle of the night but residents and municipal workers who came armed with backhoes had it repaired before morning.

Resident Linda Erickson attributed their success so far to RM of Coldwell Reeve Brian Sigfusson, who she called “our hero.” Sigfusson, who worked in construction for more than 50 years, insisted on having not one but two rows of dikes.

Armin Latell of nearby Sugar Point also had praise for local municipal officials. “They’ve done everything they could do for us,” Latell said.

Lundar Beach has been hit harder than Sugar Point. The community consists of a strip of houses along the lake, and it risks being overcome by water from both sides. The lake is usually 75 feet away but it’s now held back by dikes just a few feet from cottage walls. Behind the buildings, a swampy area continued to fill with water from the lake.

Sigfusson didn’t hold back in his criticism of the province, complaining that it had recommended a height for dikes, only to then increase it on short notice. At this point, he said the province won’t tell him how high the dikes might need to be built. “They don’t tell us anything,” he said.

But Sigfusson remained confident. “If they don’t raise it too much more and we can get a month without tremendous winds, I think we can do fine.”

william.burr@freepress.mb.ca