Your forecast
A mix of sun and cloud with a 30 per cent chance of showers; risk of a thunderstorm this afternoon. Wind from the southeast at 30 km/h gusting to 50. High 25 C. Humidex 27. UV index 6 or high.
Warm temperatures and the threat of rainfall are raising concerns in Peguis First Nation.
Forecast highs of 19 C Wednesday and Thursday, along with two to four millimetres of rain, could worsen conditions in the community about 180 kilometres north of Winnipeg, where nine residents have been moved to Selkirk.
“It exacerbates the situation that much more,” said Doug Thomas, the First Nation’s communications director. “It’s one of the contributing factors that causes the banks to overflow. It’s quite often not just the floods. It’s the floods plus the rain that make things overflow the banks.”
Thomas, who spoke to the Free Press Wednesday, said the Fisher River could overflow as early as Thursday, depending on rainfall and how quickly snow and ice melt. Scott Billeck has the story.
About 800,000 sandbags and 23,000 super sandbags have been delivered to Peguis. (John Woods / Free Press)
What’s happening today
Tonight at 7 p.m., University of Winnipeg professor emeritus and Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives research associate Jim Silver launches his new book The Transformative Power of Adult Education at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location.
Today’s must-read
An intoxicated man was found waiting at the Grace Hospital Monday morning with a smoke grenade in his possession, Winnipeg police said, leading a union leader to raise questions about safety at the facility.
Winnipeg Police Service officers were called to the hospital on Booth Drive by security personnel, who found the device on the man when interacting with him at about 5:30 a.m., police said Wednesday.
The man, who exhibited “bizarre behaviour,” had been sitting in the waiting room for around 11 hours and became intoxicated during that time, said a Manitoba Nurses Union official, relaying information from a nurse who works at the Grace.
Police bomb unit investigators were called in to check out the device, which they determined was an active military- grade smoke-screen training grenade. Erik Pindera has the story.
Grace Hospital (Mike Deal / Free Press files)
On the bright side
The success of Winnipeg’s Downtown Community Safety Partnership foot patrols has caught the attention of cities across Canada.
Representatives in Victoria, Edmonton, Toronto and Kenora, Ont., have met with DCSP leaders to learn how the foot patrol and resource system could be duplicated in their cities, which are also dealing with the scourge of homelessness and addictions.
Edmonton-based private-sector security expert Todd Benner invited DCSP executive director Greg Burnett to a summit last week to pitch the idea to non-profit organizations, representatives from the city, security companies and other players with a stake in Edmonton’s downtown.
“We wanted to bring everyone together to ask, ‘how do we work together to create a safer Edmonton?’” Benner told the Free Press. Nicole Buffie has more here.
Burnett says the fact other cities are looking at the DCSP model is a reflection of the philosophy behind the organization. (John Woods / Free Press files)
On this date
On April 23, 1962: The Winnipeg Free Press reported the United States would employ its most powerful rocket in an attempt to propel the Ranger 4 spacecraft to the moon to take televised pictures and collect scientific data. Ice jams that clogged the Assiniboine River and caused it to overflow its banks 28 miles west of Winnipeg were being broken up with the help of dynamite.
Today’s front page
Get the full story: Read today’s e-edition of the Free Press.
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