Water - Water Everywhere!!! Flooding in Southwestern Manitoba

Our beautiful little city is now under a state of emergency.  The Assiniboine River has spilled over its bank an unbelievable amount.  They have evacuated about 2000 people from the north and south sides of the river as of 8 pm this evening.  They are hoping for the best-case scenario but are more likely to see the worst-case scenario as the rain continues to fall and the watershed continues to feed into the river from all directions an rain is on the forecast for the rest of the week. 

They just announced a couple hours ago that they are going to make some breaks in the dikes before the town of Headlingly, which is just west of Winnipeg and just under a couple hours east of here, to allow some of the excess water to be released before it hits Winnipeg because the floodways are already at capacity and the water has nowhere to go.  They figure that about 150 homes will be lost...My heart goes out to all those families that will be impacted.

I admire all the city crews, volunteers and our mayor Shari Dector-Hirst for the courageous effort that they are putting forth to attempt to hold back a prodigious amount of water.  They all deserve major kudos for their very hard-working efforts.

Look at the height of the water in relation to the vehicles.

The super bags that have been put in place are currently keeping the river back but they did have to close 1st Street  because they couldn't keep up with their pumps despite all the bags.  These bags each sit about four feet high and are double stacked and are now double and triple layered as well.  The water levels are higher than the average vehicle on the other side of the dikes from the road.  Kind of scary when you realize that the water is higher than your vehicle and has the strength to simply crush it or wash it away...

Check out the photo from ebrandon (from 3 days ago - water levels are higher since) at the right - especially the vehicles to the right and the water on the other side of the super bags...


There are some more photos of the river going through Brandon and the surrounding area and the efforts that have been put in place.  Check out the photos on our local ebrandon site - especially the aerial ones on the second and third pages.  If you click on the photos - they will enlarge.  Keep in mind that the aerial photos were from May 6th and the river has risen and spread a great deal more since then. 
http://www.ebrandon.ca/photos.aspx

I am not a religious person but hope that you will all send a heartfelt prayer or thought for all those affected by this flood.  So many towns, Hutterite colonies, homes, farms, animals and wildlife are being impacted and they need all the help they can get.