Gratitude instead of griping north of city after floodway helps break up ice jams
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/04/2019 (1837 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The floodway may have come to the rescue of people downstream in the RM of St. Andrews for a change.
An ice jam developed Saturday on Netley Creek and by Sunday, waters were rising by up to a foot every hour, threatening about 1,500 homes, St. Andrews emergency co-ordinator Jim Stinson said.
RM firefighters moved 60 flood barriers into place and public works staff pumped out water, built up a low-lying road, and steamed open culverts in the fight the water, which continued to rise.
Then, just before midnight Sunday, the ice started to move and the water level fell.
What changed?
“Something caused the ice jam to move,” said Stinson.
It turns out the floodway was opened at noon Sunday. It takes the water 10 to 12 hours to reach St. Andrews. That’s after water has detoured around Winnipeg and rejoined the Red River channel to the north.
“We started to notice a minor drop at midnight and we believe — we don’t have concrete information — that the excess water (from the floodway) may have given it enough of a push to get that ice jam out,” Stinson said.
People downstream of where floodway water rejoins the Red River channel always have to brace themselves against dramatic water rises or ice jams. Not this time, however.
It means the threat of ice jamming in communities north of Winnipeg such as Selkirk and St. Andrews appears to be over for another season, as the ice has moved north of Netley Creek on its way to Lake Winnipeg.
“We’re through the ice-jam problems. It’s wide-open water,” Stinson said. “That is very good news. Even in this snowstorm (Monday morning), I’m quite happy.”
Now they have to watch for the Red River’s crest in a couple of weeks time.
“We’ll leave all our protection in place waiting for the peak to arrive from the south,” he said.
That goes for the City of Selkirk, too. Selkirk closed its bridge that connects it with East Selkirk late last week because of ice jams that have since broken, allowing traffic on the bridge again.
“Water levels are down and flowing freely,” said Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannson.
The Red River is now forecast to crest below the level of its 2011 flood.
bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
