WINNIPEG – Massive ice jams and high river levels destroyed homes and created havoc for communities along the Red River North of Winnipeg in 2009, and some fear it could happen again.
“We’re very concerned,” said Ken Sim, emergency measures co-ordinator for the Rural Municipality of St. Clements. “The snow pack in St. Clements is quiet deep.”
Sim said his RM is not waiting for the next flood forecast to get ready for what’s coming.
They’re “starting to make some sandbags, putting in Hesco barriers in the portion where we weren’t able to finish the permanent diking system,” he said.
Hesco barriers, often used as bunkers in the military, now line Tom Forster’s backyard north of Selkirk, blocking his view of the Red River.
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“We’ve never had ice come up this high before,” Forster said.
But flood officials here aren’t taking any chances on Forster’s home, erecting the barriers earlier than ever before.
Last week, the U.S National Weather Service forecast a Top 5 flood event for Fargo.
That city plans to declare a state of emergency this week and work has begun on making half a million sandbags.
But flood officials in St. Clements are hoping they don’t have to rely on the backs of volunteers.
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“Volunteers are getting worn out; sandbagging is heavy work,” said former EMO Jim Stinson, who sells a new sandbagging machine called the SandMaster.
The new technology has become a major hit. It makes 20 sandbags in 90 seconds, as many as 5,000 a day.
Stinson said it only takes two people to fill sandbags using the SandMaster.
The RM of St. Clements in the first in Canada to buy the machine but neighbouring RM St. Andrews plans to rent one and start sandbagging next week, while other communities are lining up to see if they can use the SandMasters in their flood fight.
“There really isn’t another machine that’s produced today that we felt had that same capability,” Sim said.
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