Faulty gauge tricks flood fighters on Assiniboine River

Flood fighters along the Assiniboine River were scrambling Friday to raise their flood defenses after learning a lot more water than expected is coming their way.

Provincial officials revealed during a news conference Friday afternoon that a faulty gauge in Saskatchewan on the Qu’Appelle River (a tributary of the Assiniboine) had been underestimating the flow of water by about 2,500 cubic feet per second.

“What we have determined is that there was a gauge that was giving inaccurate readings in Saskatchewan,” Manitoba Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said during an afternoon flood news conference on Friday, “We have now obtained accurate readings."

That means the Assiniboine is now expected to peak up to 1.5 feet higher than first expected, putting the high water mark perilously close to the tops of dikes protecting communities like the City of Brandon. The dike in that city is 1,184 feet above sea level, and the river is now expected to reach 1,183 feet when it crests some time between May 12 and 14. Flood fighters normally like to build at least two feet of “free board” above crest levels, to allow for wave action or other unexpected developments. Provincial officials said work was already under way to add the extra flood protection.

The Assiniboine has already passed the record level in Brandon set during the flood of 1923.

The higher water is also expected to cause more trouble in St. Francois Xavier and the Rural Municipality of Cartier, two communities that straddle the Assiniboine just west of Winnipeg.

"We’re angry. We felt we were really prepared so to be told now that you have a couple of days to go up another couple of feet, we’re a little angry," says Sharon Ezako, who will spend mother’s day weekend raising her sandbag dike.

Homeowners there who have been fighting to keep flood waters from swamping their properties complained as late as Thursday that the province’s river level predictions were not squaring with what they were seeing out their front doors.