Rare fall flooding closes Selkirk Bridge; residents on alert
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/11/2019 (1597 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The bridge across the Red River in Selkirk has been closed due to high water, sand bags are ready for pickup, and some St. Andrews homes could be evacuated: if the calendar didn’t say November, you would swear it was April.
Meanwhile, the province has issued a thin-ice warning for southern Manitoba to try to prevent drowning deaths.
While the chilly temperatures might feel like winter, the level of the Red River looks more like spring. Residents and communities north of Winnipeg are on alert as the river keeps rising and more chunks of ice flow, creating jams in areas that normally get blockages in early spring.
“We do not want residents to panic,” said Jim Stinson, the emergency coordinator of the RM of St. Andrews. “We want them to be diligent and keep monitoring their own properties. We’ve had people on the road monitoring it since 6 a.m.
“In the 30 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen this in the fall. It is the complete opposite to spring time. We’ve never lived this. Right now it is a new game and we have to learn it,” he said Wednesday.
Stinson said as many as homes could be evacuated if the river level doesn’t recede. He said sand bags are available at the municipal office for homeowners who have localized flooding. He said he knows of at least one property in Netley Creek in which water has overtaken driveway, but the residents don’t have to leave because they can still get out.
He said ice jams on the Red, at points between Breezy Point and Lake Winnipeg, are causing the river level to go up at a time when the river level south of Winnipeg is going down.
Stinson said it’s hoped the river flow will break up the ice jam.
“I have no way of knowing what will happen,” he said. “We have to get rid of this water.”
In Selkirk, Mayor Larry Johannson said it is not normal this late in the year for the Selkirk Bridge and a portion of Highway 204 to be closed due to high river level.
Drivers must detour either north to Highway 4 or south to Lockport, if they want to cross the Red River.
“We’ve never seen this. It’s unprecedented,” he said. “We go through this every spring, but not now.
“It’s getting scary. It is coming up high. Usually when they ask me for a date when the bridge will reopen, I can usually get from the experts ‘two or four days or a week.’ But I don’t know when it will be open. Nobody knows. This isn’t going down anytime soon.”
Johannson said properties in Selkirk are protected by a dike.
On the east side of the Red River, RM of St. Clements Mayor, Debbie Fiebelkorn, said the bridge closure forces both residents of her municipality who work and shop in Selkirk, and Selkirk residents who work in the municipality to detour to other bridges.
“It is a real inconvenience when this happens, but we cannot play with Mother Nature. We just have to live with it,” Fiebelkorn said.
“It is absolutely unbelievable. I’ve lived in East Selkirk my entire life and I’ve talked to others who say they’ve never seen the water this high at this time of year.”
The province issued a thin-ice advisory for rivers, streams and lakes in southern Manitoba until they freeze completely.
The provincial Hydrologic Forecast Centre is warning snowmobilers, skiers and others not to go onto rivers and lakes. It says ice conditions on the Red and Assiniboine rivers could be dangerous until mid-December.
Christopher Love, of the Lifesaving Society of Manitoba, said about six to seven Manitobans drown annually by falling through ice during the winter season and shoulder periods.
“If we can get the word to them now, hopefully no one will go through,” Love said. “We know because of the high water levels, it may drop at some point, but we won’t know if there are air pockets and layered ice.
“We were at the Winnipeg Ice Fishing show on the weekend and a man told us he went ice fishing on two-and-a-half inches of ice and we said ‘glad you’re here.'”
Love said the safest course of action is to constantly check ice thickness and to wear either a life-jacket or a buoyant snowmobile suit.
“If you are fishing, you need to be prepared to go through the ice into cold water.”
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
Kevin Rollason
Reporter
Kevin Rollason is one of the more versatile reporters at the Winnipeg Free Press. Whether it is covering city hall, the law courts, or general reporting, Rollason can be counted on to not only answer the 5 Ws — Who, What, When, Where and Why — but to do it in an interesting and accessible way for readers.
History
Updated on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 5:24 PM CST: Adds photos
Updated on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 6:51 PM CST: Updates photo caption.