Volunteers scramble to save iconic hotel

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/03/2009 (6272 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

DOZENS of patrons, employees and neighbours rallied to save one of Winnipeg’s ancient watering holes from a watery grave Wednesday.

The volunteers at the LaSalle Hotel raced against time to protect the 95-year-old Nairn Avenue inn from the rising Red River. "People from all over the city are helping," said owner Don Matthews, buoyed by news that up to 40 students from Elmwood High School were on their way there Wednesday.

Behind the hotel, a handful of Canada geese honked at a half-dozen sand-baggers scrambling in icy, knee-deep water to build a wall as high as the red surveyor’s tape, well above their heads. The red tape was placed by a city official to indicate a high-water mark the river is expected to reach today — weeks before the Red River is expected to crest.

At least 35,000 sandbags will be needed, one helper said Wednesday at the hotel, where crews have been sandbagging since Tuesday.

"Everything we did (Tuesday) is under two feet of water today," said Ron, a volunteer who declined to give his last name.

There were as many as 60 volunteers on Tuesday, he said.

"We had two lines going," he said in the middle of Wednesday morning’s snowstorm, when the number of helpers dwindled to six or seven.

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"We’re running out of days and people. And the snow didn’t help."

Why did he agree to brave the blizzard-like conditions and volunteer?

"I’m from Manitoba," he said. And he has a soft spot for the hotel that holds so many memories.

"I celebrated my 18th birthday here 20 years ago."

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.