Red River Flood Watch - Update April 9 - Winnipeg Manitoba and area

Red River Flood Watch - April 2009 - Updates including Winnipeg, Manitoba area and Fargo, North Dakota

Alerts - Thursday April 9

• Red River Floodway has been opened.
• Highway 75 will be temporarily closed from Winnipeg to approximately 20 kilometres south of Morris starting Tuesday at noon. It will reopen when the flood threat has passed.
• [source cbc.ca]

EmergWeb Updates - City of Winnipeg - Local calling area, call 311

At-risk property owners advised to raise dikes due to ice and rising river levels:
Temporary evacuation of specific areas recommended based on river conditions - The City of Winnipeg is advising at-risk property owners on Kingston Row and Kingston Crescent to raise their dikes an additional foot. This is required due to the risk of additional ice jams in the Kingston Row area. More...

Ice Jams still greatest threat
The Winnipeg Floodway has been opened diverting huge volumes of rising Red River water around the city to the north. The greatest risk continues to be the unpredictable nature of the ice jams - there have been instances of jams dislodging, and waters receding, only to rise dramatically again in a few hours when the ice jams at a new location only short distances down the river. ( The Red River flows south to north in the Winnipeg area). Areas at the greatest risk of flooding, with many properties being flooded already are north of Winnipeg, concentrated for now in Selkirk, although there has been some flooding to the south as well. At the Manitoba U.S border area Highway 75 has been closed for a few days.

In some unsettling reports - a new flood fighting method tried out by the city and province is proving to be unreliable. Water is getting past some "tube dike" deployments in Winnipeg. The province purchased more than 60 of the tube dikes - long rubber tubes then filled with water - less than two weeks ago, as they were supposed to be faster than sandbag dikes to deploy.

It is also difficult to say what the impact will be of the water diverted through the Floodway on ice jams to the north. Because ice is flowing through the Floodway, when it exits the northern outlet, all the ice will then meet existing ice jams near Selkirk and other communities if they have not dislodged by then.

:: ice jams near Selkirk - photo WFP

I'll continue posting the updates both here at the Canada News blog as well as the MissionLog over on Wordpress.com and will post volunteer opportunities for Toronto area folks wishing to get involved at the Project417 website - project417.com - Search for more Red River flood news from the Google search bar at the top of the blog.