chicot60
04-26-2011, 11:29 AM
By Lindor Reynolds, Winnipeg Free Press and Postmedia News
Read more:
http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/world/Manitoba+couple+sells+sandbags+protect+doomed+home/4673210/story.html#ixzz1KczavNIg
Liz Chesney sold her 1995 Ford Escort station wagon to buy the sand needed to build a dike around her Manitoba home. That's the house she and her husband, Roy Hauff, were forced to abandon to the flood Monday morning.
They fled with their black Lab, Duke, two cats and a couple of suitcases stuffed with clothing. They don't know what will be left when they get back to their 62-acre grain farm in Ste. Agathe, Man.
In 2009, the water was right up to the house, about 1 1/2 metres deep in the driveway. They lost their antique car collection. The well was ringed with sludge. The cleanup took them the better part of a year. Some of it still wasn't done, not to their liking.
This year, it cost them $1,400 for four loads of sand and more for the bags. It took 6,000 bags to ring the house.
"You do it the old-fashioned way, with a shovel," says Hauff, a long-distance trucker.
"People will say we should help ourselves. That's what we're doing out there," says Chesney, a health-care aide. "But when the water comes what are you supposed to do?"
There are currently 30 active states of local emergency declared by Manitoba municipalities, and 79 provincial roads affected by flood waters, 53 of which are closed. About 600 municipal roads are closed.
Meanwhile, Regina resident Helen Anne MacDonald spent Easter weekend helping her sister protect her home.
Responding to a call for help from her sister and brother-in-law who have a cottage in the flood-plagued Saskatchewan community of Katepwa, the Regina designer became part of a human chain which filled countless sandbags.
"We did sandbagging around their cottage and then we went to help others," MacDonald said. "Normally we go to church on Good Friday, but I said to my sister, 'This is sort of like church because we're helping people out.' "
Over the next few days, Katepwa Lake — about 85 kilometres northeast of Regina — is projected to rise 35 centimetres or more, said John Fahlman, acting director of basin operations for the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority.
Currently, 23 Saskatchewan communities are designated as eligible disaster areas under the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program and another 20 are in the process of seeking the designation.
Doug Wakabayashi, spokesman for Highways and Infrastructure, said 30 segments of provincial highway are impacted by water.
"That includes 13 sections of highway that are currently closed," he said. "Most of the impacts to traffic right now tend to be in the east central area of the province, particularly Yorkton and Canora areas and around Preeceville and Kelvington."
Over the weekend, Manitoba officials said that nearly 80 per cent of flood evacuees in Manitoba are from First Nations.
Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said over the weekend that 864 of the 1,100 people forced to leave their communities due to rising floodwaters are from First Nation communities.
Flooding across the province is the worst in modern memory, with water levels reaching 1976 records that devastated the province.
Provincial updates about flooding continue to paint a grim picture of the situation, emphasizing that flooding is more widespread and will last longer than 2009.
While the vast majority of evacuations — including the latest, in Roseau River First Nation — are precautionary, Ashton said it highlights the effect the 2011 flood has had on these communities.
"It does point to the particular impact flooding does have on First Nations," Ashton said, adding later: "It's also reflective of many of the difficulties First Nations have in terms of maintaining access even where homes aren't at risk."
Most of the evacuations are a result of losing safe road access to homes.
Overall, water levels on both the Assiniboine River and Red River continue to rise, and there is a possibility they may crest simultaneously sometime between April 30 and May 3.
"In terms of volumes of water, it will be a very, very significant flood," Ashton said.
Read more: http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/world/Manitoba+couple+sells+sandbags+protect+doomed+home/4673210/story.html#ixzz1KczNJnxy
Read more:
http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/world/Manitoba+couple+sells+sandbags+protect+doomed+home/4673210/story.html#ixzz1KczavNIg
Liz Chesney sold her 1995 Ford Escort station wagon to buy the sand needed to build a dike around her Manitoba home. That's the house she and her husband, Roy Hauff, were forced to abandon to the flood Monday morning.
They fled with their black Lab, Duke, two cats and a couple of suitcases stuffed with clothing. They don't know what will be left when they get back to their 62-acre grain farm in Ste. Agathe, Man.
In 2009, the water was right up to the house, about 1 1/2 metres deep in the driveway. They lost their antique car collection. The well was ringed with sludge. The cleanup took them the better part of a year. Some of it still wasn't done, not to their liking.
This year, it cost them $1,400 for four loads of sand and more for the bags. It took 6,000 bags to ring the house.
"You do it the old-fashioned way, with a shovel," says Hauff, a long-distance trucker.
"People will say we should help ourselves. That's what we're doing out there," says Chesney, a health-care aide. "But when the water comes what are you supposed to do?"
There are currently 30 active states of local emergency declared by Manitoba municipalities, and 79 provincial roads affected by flood waters, 53 of which are closed. About 600 municipal roads are closed.
Meanwhile, Regina resident Helen Anne MacDonald spent Easter weekend helping her sister protect her home.
Responding to a call for help from her sister and brother-in-law who have a cottage in the flood-plagued Saskatchewan community of Katepwa, the Regina designer became part of a human chain which filled countless sandbags.
"We did sandbagging around their cottage and then we went to help others," MacDonald said. "Normally we go to church on Good Friday, but I said to my sister, 'This is sort of like church because we're helping people out.' "
Over the next few days, Katepwa Lake — about 85 kilometres northeast of Regina — is projected to rise 35 centimetres or more, said John Fahlman, acting director of basin operations for the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority.
Currently, 23 Saskatchewan communities are designated as eligible disaster areas under the Provincial Disaster Assistance Program and another 20 are in the process of seeking the designation.
Doug Wakabayashi, spokesman for Highways and Infrastructure, said 30 segments of provincial highway are impacted by water.
"That includes 13 sections of highway that are currently closed," he said. "Most of the impacts to traffic right now tend to be in the east central area of the province, particularly Yorkton and Canora areas and around Preeceville and Kelvington."
Over the weekend, Manitoba officials said that nearly 80 per cent of flood evacuees in Manitoba are from First Nations.
Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said over the weekend that 864 of the 1,100 people forced to leave their communities due to rising floodwaters are from First Nation communities.
Flooding across the province is the worst in modern memory, with water levels reaching 1976 records that devastated the province.
Provincial updates about flooding continue to paint a grim picture of the situation, emphasizing that flooding is more widespread and will last longer than 2009.
While the vast majority of evacuations — including the latest, in Roseau River First Nation — are precautionary, Ashton said it highlights the effect the 2011 flood has had on these communities.
"It does point to the particular impact flooding does have on First Nations," Ashton said, adding later: "It's also reflective of many of the difficulties First Nations have in terms of maintaining access even where homes aren't at risk."
Most of the evacuations are a result of losing safe road access to homes.
Overall, water levels on both the Assiniboine River and Red River continue to rise, and there is a possibility they may crest simultaneously sometime between April 30 and May 3.
"In terms of volumes of water, it will be a very, very significant flood," Ashton said.
Read more: http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/world/Manitoba+couple+sells+sandbags+protect+doomed+home/4673210/story.html#ixzz1KczNJnxy