Massive ice jam backs up river, damaging dozens of homes in Carman

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This article was published 03/04/2017 (3138 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A huge ice jam in the Boyne River has Carman residents facing their worst flood in decades.

Mayor Bob Mitchell said Monday that more than 30 homes have already been damaged by basement and crawl space flooding or sewage backup as a result of the six-kilometre-long glacier-like barrier.

Mitchell said more than 200 other properties were at risk over the past few days, but the threat is dropping along with river levels.

“The water has been going down — probably around 30 inches (75 centimetres) overnight,” he said.

“The risk is not there as much as it was, but as the ice jams (upstream) give way, we get water. Water from the next one will get here in 2 1/2 days.”

Mitchell said flooding used to be almost an annual event until a diversion system was built around Carman in 1991.

But the mayor said ice is causing the problem, forcing water that has already flowed downstream through the community back into town.

“The ice is three feet (90 cm) thick in places and we can’t get equipment to it,” he said. “The ice jam is six kilometres long. There was water running over the bridge by the golf course — we’ve never seen that before.”

 

In a press release late Monday, the Prairie Rose School Division announced that both Carman Elementary and Carman Collegiate will be closed on Tuesday due to the flooding and water supply situations.

“We think we can get the treatment plant operational (Monday night),” Mitchell said.

But he said everyone is keeping a close eye on the river.

“Some of our guys have been working around the clock,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this and I’ve been living here for 35 years.”

 

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

 

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