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As western Manitoba communities reel from recent chaotic rainfall and widespread flooding, communities downstream of Manitoba waterways are doing what they can to prepare for what could be coming their way.
Flood mitigation efforts are underway in Minnedosa, which is nestled in a valley along the Little Saskatchewan River. Volunteers in the town of about 2,500 people have been working to fill sandbags and protect vulnerable areas.
“We’re just trying to get ahead of the game,” Mayor Ken Cameron said in an interview with CBC News on Friday.
“When it all shakes down, you prepare the best you can, and Mother Nature’s probably going to throw you a curveball — that’s just life.”
Water from the central part of Riding Mountain National Park flows south down the Little Saskatchewan River.
Manitoba flood forecasting is projecting spiking levels of water flow on the river through Minnedosa over the coming weekend.
Katianna Polejewski, the town’s municipal emergency co-ordinator, said there’s a possibility the river will rise 2.5 feet (roughly three-quarters of a metre) in coming days.
Katianna Polejewski, the municipal emergency co-ordinator for the Town of Minnedosa, says the Little Saskatchewan River could rise by nearly a metre soon. (Michele McDougall/CBC)
“Currently, we’re just trying to prevent any threat from developing,” she said.
Along with the volunteer-led sandbagging blitz, Minnedosa’s emergency social service teams will be on call.
“We are remaining quite calm…. But we do have to be prepared to act,” Polejewski said.
The community’s centre is also very close to the Minnedosa dam, which holds back water at the south end of Minnedosa Lake. Polejewski said the town has been consulting with the province about its operation and any regulation of water flow from the dam.
Esther McLaughlin has lived in Minnedosa for 22 years. After her basement flooded in 2020, she immediately sought out sandbags this week to protect her property. (Michele McDougall/CBC)
In 2022, spring flooding and rainfall prompted a state of emergency to be declared for the town, located about 200 kilometres west of Winnipeg.
Longtime Minnedosa homeowner Esther McLaughlin suggested she learned her lesson in 2020 and cleared her basement out after six feet of water seeped in. On Friday, she’d already had sandbags placed around the front of her property.
“Been there, done that,” McLaughlin said. “As soon as they said there were sandbags, we got sandbags.
“Very nice people came at 11 o’clock at night and put the sandbags down,” she said.
Mayor Cameron said it’s hard not to be proud of the work volunteers have been doing to help get ahead of things. Some in the community are frustrated, he said, but there’s a lot on the line.
“It’s a flood…. Their homes, their livelihoods, everything’s at stake.”
‘Not the best time to go fishing’
Preparations are also underway in Brandon to fend off the rising Assiniboine River.
The river is expected to rise near Brandon early next week, according to provincial forecasts, with a forecast peak near July 12, the city said in a news release Friday.
A temporary dike closure is also in place on Grand Valley Road — a major thoroughfare that runs through the city — to the west of 18th Street N., for flood protection work expected to be completed Friday, the city said Wednesday.
WATCH | Communities brace for flooding:
Work underway to protect Minnedosa, Brandon as rivers rise
Volunteers are filling thousands of sandbags in Minnedosa, Man., where people are watching and waiting, as the swollen Little Saskatchewan River is expected to rise this weekend. Efforts are also underway in Brandon to fend off the rising Assiniboine River.
“Best-case scenario, we do a lot of things that aren’t necessary and then we take it down,” Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett told CBC News Friday.
Although the city is not in a state of emergency, the mayor says it’s “going full-in right now, just to be prepared.”
Tobin Praznik, the city’s emergency manager, also said the city is prepared.
“We’ve been through it a number of times,” he said Friday. “We got great mitigation strategies in place, we got a great dike system to be able to protect the city, and we have a number of items that we’ll be checking off as the river levels increase in the next week.”
The city is also urging people to stay away from the dike system, closed trails, parks and riverbank areas.
“Not the best time to go fishing,” Fawcett said. “Stay away from the river. The river’s moving really fast. It’s going to start getting a lot faster.”