Plan brewing to keep vital route open

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This article was published 23/02/2010 (5935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Southern Manitoba will likely see "significant" flooding this spring due to heavy snowfall south of the border and ground soil still soaked from last summer’s frequent rainstorms.

"I think at minimum we’re dealing with a hangover from 2009," Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said Monday at the province’s first spring flooding briefing for 2010. "We are clearly recognizing with this outlook that there is a significant risk for flooding."

The high social moisture means melting snow has nowhere to go but the Red River, the province’s senior river forecaster Alf Warkentin said.

Warkentin said the anticipated water levels would be 0.3 to 0.9 metres (one to three feet) lower than last year, but that’s if Mother Nature co-operates and we don’t get more snow or rain.

With bad weather, conditions along the Red River could be about 0.3 metres (one foot) higher than in 2009, but still 0.3 to 0.6 metres (one to two feet) lower than in 1997.

The timing and speed of the spring breakup, and how much rain and snow we get in the next eight to 10 weeks, will have considerable effect on the flood potential.

"It’s very dependent on future weather," Warkentin said. "This is still very early. We’re still in February. We still have 21/2 months of weather in front of us."

At this point, the run-off on the Red River in Manitoba is expected to be above average from Emerson to Morris but average from Morris through Winnipeg and into Lake Winnipeg. Run-off on the U.S. side of the border is expected to be well above average mostly because they’ve had more snow.

Flooding in low-lying areas of the Interlake and along the Souris River watershed is also likely. Flooding is also expected on the Peguis River, but not as severe as last year.

The province advanced its spring flood preparations by about a month this year after last year’s flood caught many by surprise. Cold weather and thick river ice that refused to break up caused flood waters to rise rapidly, with the most damage caused north of Winnipeg where ice and water hit dozens of homes and cottages. Much of that damage won’t be repeated as the province has since bought out 60 low-lying properties in Breezy Point.

Total flood damage was about $40 million.

Steve Topping of Manitoba Water Stewardship said about 10 kilometres of river ice from Lake Winnipeg south towards the Selkirk Bridge have been cut so far. Next month, Amphibex ice-breaking machines will smash it up in advance of rising flood water.

"We’re finding the ice is not as thick as it was last year, particularly north of Winnipeg," Topping said.

Last year, 1,000 square kilometres of land were flooded in Manitoba. In 1997, the worst flood of the past 100 years, 1,700 square kilometres of land were flooded. If the weather stays favourable, it’s anticipated about 600 square kilometres of land will be flooded.

"We’re guaranteed of overland flooding," but not enough to see communities evacuated, Ashton said.

Warkentin said while Fargo, N.D., has a 98 per cent chance of some significant flooding this spring, it doesn’t mean southern Manitoba and Winnipeg are in the same boat.

That’s because Winnipeg has its floodway and dike system, Warkentin said.

bruce.owen@freepress.mb.ca

A solution to keep busy Highway 75 open during spring floods doesn’t involve moving the highway out of harm’s way — it involves moving the Morris River, Steve Ashton, Manitoba’s minister of emergency services, as well and infrastructure and transportation, said Monday.

"Our goal is to reduce the number of days it’s closed," Ashton said Monday after the province’s first spring flood briefing of the year. "We’re going to look at all options including a potential relocation of the river itself."

The plan involves building a channel to divert the Morris River around Morris into the Red River further north of town.

A Morris River diversion would reduce the almost yearly occurrence of the swollen Morris River flowing over the Morris Bridge, forcing officials to close the highway.

Ashton said a plan to tackle the project will be rolled out in a matter of weeks.

"It will certainly be an expensive project but there’s a cost to having it closed," Ashton said.

Flooding has closed Manitoba’s major north-south trade route for nearly 100 days in the last 13 years. In the last decade, not counting the Flood of the Century in 1997, Highway 75 has been under water for 54 days. If the ’97 flood is included, the number rises to 98 days.

Highway 75 is seen as one of the weak links in the province’s plan to create a new trade and transportation hub called CentrePort. The new industrial park, planned for near the Winnipeg airport, aims to lure more businesses to the city by better co-ordinating air, rail and truck traffic.

Despite millions of dollars in improvements, Winnipeg’s main trade route to the U.S. was under water for 36 days last spring, which forced truckers to take an hour-long detour and raised questions about how well an inland-port concept might work.

 

— Bruce Owen