State of emergencies declared in rural Manitoba communities due to flooding

Several rural communities in southern Manitoba have declared local emergencies due to ongoing flooding.

Some areas have received two to five times the normal amount of rain and snow in the past few weeks.

The City of Morden issued evacuation notices to residents, as did the Rural Municipality of Ritchot. And the Rural Municipality of Dufferin was the latest to declare a state of emergency Sunday morning.

“All the streets around my area have been closed so I actually can’t leave my house,” said Morden resident Susan Brown, who lives by a creek.

“I was very worried that it would flood into our homes.”

With river levels rising, much of southern Manitoba has been on flood watch for the past two weeks.

Morden, about 125 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg, issued evacuation notices to dozens of residents as streets looked like rivers over the weekend after incessant rains.

Brown says she has never seen overland flooding this bad since she moved to Morden in 2014.

“I have been monitoring the creek since last week actually,” she said. “It is amazing how saturated the ground is. It’s boggy. It’s probably 100 times more full than it was last year.”

The Morden resident says she had a few sleepless nights and hopes this flooding doesn’t become a yearly event.

“It was a crazy amount of water that rose in 24 hours, and it didn’t even seem like it was that much rain,” she said.

Morden Fire Chief Andy Thiessen says several roads in the city have also been damaged. But he says the focus now is on clean-up operations as the worst is believed to be over.

“The state of emergency stays in place for 30 days,” said Thiessen. “The actual emergency part now will be within the next week. We have had some sewer lines that have been compromised due to erosion, things like that, which need to be dealt with, but the emergency stays in place for 30 days.”

George Gray, Reeve of the RM of Dufferin – north of Morden – says half a dozens families have been evacuated from their homes with more expected over the next few days.

“I’ve never seen water come so fast, the volume of water is certainly as high as I have seen it, but it’s the speed,” said Gray. “There is nothing to impede it. It’s overcoming all the resources we are trying to fight with.”

Chris Ewen, the mayor of the RM of Ritchot, says just under 100 evacuation notices have been served in his community, but everyone is keeping their guard up just in case.

“Yes, concerning for sure if you are new to the area, but as a resident that has been here for 30, 40 or even 50 years, this is just common practice almost annually here,” said Ewen. “We are seeing higher levels than normal, but this is just common in the Red River Valley.”

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• More rain threatens Red River flooding, water could reach 2009 levels
• Raw sewage dumped into Winnipeg’s Red River to offload pressure on sewer system during storm
• More wet weather in forecast spells trouble for Manitoba farmers: ‘We need some sunshine’
• Manitoba flood warning increased along Assiniboine River

Environment Canada is predicting nothing but sun and warm weather for the next week, which will be welcome news for many.

But in Winnipeg, people are being told to use extreme caution around all city waterways, as banks may be unstable.