Health authority orders Roseau River evacuation

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This article was published 26/03/2009 (6350 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — The people on the Roseau River reserve are being evacuated this afternoon as the threat to the community from rising flood waters grows larger.

The reserve’s health authority decided this morning to evacuate the elders and some families with small children. They will be bused into Winnipeg and put up at a Canad Inn hotel.

The health authority is using the band’s health care funds to foot the bill at the moment because the reserve is caught in a jurisdictional battle with Ottawa and Manitoba over who is responsible.

Band leader Terry Nelson — who was the chief until a recent electoral dispute left the band without an official leader — said INAC told him it wouldn’t be making a decision about what money might be available for evacuation until April 1.

It’s expected the reserve, 92 kilometres south of Winnipeg, will be cut off when water goes over the roads around it, requiring evacuation.

A ring dike around the community is in place and could protect the homes from the water but there are concerns about whether or not it is strong enough to hold up against the pressure of a major flood.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca