Holiday season no time for joy

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This article was published 15/12/2011 (5274 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eleven Manitoba municipalities remain under a state of emergency as the 2011 flood season bleeds into the 2011 holiday season.

Preparations for Christmas are taking place alongside ongoing flood-mitigation and recovery efforts in nine rural municipalities and one First Nations community alongside Lake Manitoba, which remains in a flooded state. One Lake Winnipeg community, Dauphin River, also remains under a state of emergency due to outflows from Lake Manitoba and Lake St. Martin.

As of Wednesday, 2,778 Manitobans remained evacuated from homes damaged, destroyed or threatened by flood waters in 57 communities, according to emergency measures officials.

Approximately 7,200 Manitobans have been evacuated at some point this year as a result of a flood that affected cities, towns, rural municipalities and First Nations along the Assiniboine, Souris, Red, Fisher, Saskatchewan and Icelandic rivers, among others, as well as Lake Manitoba, Dauphin Lake and other large bodies of water.

While the majority are back in their homes, remaining evacuees fear their situation will be forgotten by all three levels of government over the winter.

“People want to be remembered. There’s a feeling of loss, not just in terms of property, but in terms of the things you sometimes take for granted, like the traditions at Christmastime,” said Jack King, one of 70 permanent residents of the flood-battered Lake Manitoba community of Twin Lakes Beach, which has been under an evacuation order since May.

“When we were first evacuated, we were told we might be out for three days. Then it was three weeks. When it became obvious this would be a much longer (ordeal), we rented an apartment,” said King, who currently resides in Transcona.

His house remains relatively unscathed, which makes him one of the luckier property owners at Twin Lakes Beach, where hundreds of homes and cottages have been damaged or destroyed by waves.

“Some people have lost the fight and have no homes to return to. Their homes are destroyed and the remains are lying in a landfill,” he said. “I’m still hopeful about getting back into my home. You want to be optimistic, but at the same time, you want to be realistic.”

At the height of the 2011 flood, when the Portage Diversion was carrying record volumes of Assiniboine River water into Lake Manitoba, the province’s third-largest lake rose to 817.3 feet above sea level, almost five feet above the maximum level desired by Manitoba Water Stewardship.

The lake has since receded to 814.6 feet above sea level, a full two feet above the maximum range — and 1.6 feet above last winter’s highest level. Residents of the flood-affected Lake Manitoba communities — the town of Crane River and the rural municipalities of Woodlands, St. Laurent, Siglunes, Alonsa, Grahamdale, Lakeview, Eriksdale, Portage la Prairie, Alonsa and Coldwell — fear ice will pile up in the spring and destroy homes and cottages that survived the storms in 2011.

“We’re still in flood stage, which is quite remarkable,” said Steve Ashton, Manitoba’s emergency measures minister. “I’ve started running out of adjectives to convey the words ‘historic’ and ‘unprecedented.’ “

Ashton expressed optimism the $100-million emergency channel between Lake St. Martin and Big Buffalo Lake, which drains into the Dauphin River, will allow Lake Manitoba levels to drop over the winter.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca