Floodway use means fewer homes at risk

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This article was published 31/03/2017 (3141 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The number of Winnipeg homes threatened by the rising Red River was cut in half Friday after the province activated the floodway.

Just 25 or fewer homes require sandbag dikes in anticipation of the river’s crest over the weekend, down from the previously estimated 50, said Chris Carroll, the city’s manager of wastewater services. That means the city won’t need to prepare as many sandbags.

“We’re continuing to work very closely with properties that may require sandbags on an ongoing basis,” Carroll told media at the East Yard complex, where city employees were working extended shifts to produce sandbags.

Sand moving up a conveyer belt was dumped into a funnel, which dispersed it through a dozen or so tubes almost resembling tentacles. Workers then tied off individual bags to be transported for distribution.

Although there is a reduced need for sandbags, public works department spokesman Ken Allen said the work continues in order to build up a new reserve. “We’ve used our stockpile,” he said, so “part of our sandbag production effort right now is to replenish the stockpile so that we have them in case there’s any change this year or if we need them for next year.”

Sixty people at a time have been operating the machine since Thursday, producing 15,000 sandbags per 10-hour shift, Allen said.

Neither Caroll nor Allen would disclose which streets or even which neighbourhoods the bags are being delivered to this weekend, citing privacy reasons that they refused to elaborate on.

“The properties that we’re working with at this time are generally… in the southern end of the city,” Caroll said. “They’re areas that fairly regularly have to undertake some sort of flood protection.”

The city has been in touch with most, if not all, of the residents affected, he said, but the actual number that will require sandbag dikes “is dependent on what the water levels get to.”

Caroll said the city has taken into account light rain in the forecast and said the situation could change.

“Being a river city, this is something that’s not unusual for us to deal with in the springtime,” Allen said. “We’re in a much better position in 2017 than we were 20 years ago.”

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca