What to do with all those sandbags

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/05/2011 (5229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ELIE — Residents of this community were spared flood waters, but they now face the arduous task of dismantling the sandbag dikes they scrambled to build only two weeks ago.

With provincial officials proclaiming the Assiniboine River no longer poses a flood threat to properties between Portage la Prairie and Winnipeg, the RM of Cartier told residents they can remove the sandbags if they want.

“I’ll have to beg, borrow or rent a trailer to take these all away,” James Feagan said as he pushed a wheelbarrow full of sandbags to the end of his driveway on Legault Lane.

Roland Rasmussen, reeve of the RM of Cartier, stepped out of the municipal office Friday afternoon into the rain and looked up and down the street where every business and home is protected by sandbag dikes.

“There were a lot of volunteers here to put up the dikes, but it’s going to be a lot of work to take them down,” Rasmussen said. “We’re almost back to normal… if we could only get rid of all these sandbags.”

Rasmussen said arrangements have been made to store the sandbags at the former Dow strawboard plant on the eastern edge of this community, but it’s the residents’ responsibility to dismantle the dikes and remove the sandbags.

A provincial official was going door-to-door here Friday, gathering data on damage estimates and informing property owners they’ll be compensated for any costs they incur in removing and transporting the sandbags off their properties.

Preparations were being made to dismantle the dike that surrounds St. Paul’s Collegiate high school.

Two bobcats were parked alongside the school in the afternoon. It’s expected the sandbags will be removed today.

At the Cartier Manor, an independent-living seniors residence, tenants said they didn’t know how the sandbags that ring the small complex will be removed.

“I’ve been on the phone trying to figure out how to get it done,” Ralph Piche, vice-president of the board of directors at Cartier Manor, said.

“We had a class of Grade 8 students and their teachers from Carman come out — some of them were no bigger than the sandbags they were carrying — and did a tremendous job in building it but now I can’t find anyone to take it away.

“The small contractors in town are all booked, and I know they’re glad for the work.”

Dave Alderson and his wife returned to their home Thursday from a three-week cruise on the Rhine River in Europe to find their home surrounded by sandbags and no idea what to do about it.

“When we left, there was no inclination that this would ever happen,” Alderson said.

“Our kids built the dike and moved all the furniture from the basement but now I’m trying to find out what to do with all of this.”

Michael Gauthier, another Legault Lane resident, said one of his neighbours placed a classified ad stating he had sand for fill and some people came by and took some of the sandbags away.

Gauthier said he was relieved when a provincial official came by his house and told him all costs incurred with removing the sandbags will be refunded to the residents.

“I guess I’ll rent a trailer and take it all to the Dow (strawboard) plant,” Gauthier said.

Gauthier said some residents are grumbling that all that work to protect their homes was unnecessary but he isn’t among them.

Preparing for the flood that never came was a positive experience, Gauthier said.

“We may have overdone it but I’m glad that we did it, and I’m not complaining that it wasn’t needed,” Gauthier said.

“We had a lot of help from the Armed Forces, and all the neighbours on the street worked together, building a dike at one house and then moving onto the next and then the next one.

“It took three days to get the entire street done. We got to meet people we didn’t even know.”

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca