Rising waters on the Red River has put the Rural Municipality of St. Andrews on high alert Sunday morning.
Waters have been rising steadily since Saturday evening. Emergency co-ordinator Jim Stinson said that at one point the river was rising six inches every thirty minutes.
“On the red river we’ve got ice jams and the ice is packed right now, the water can’t get out to the lake so its backing up onto Netley Creek,” Stinson said.
The root of the issue is an ice-jam somewhere on the river.
Crews will work to break up the jam once it’s been located. Meanwhile, residents of St. Andrews are sandbagging and pumping around the clock to protect themselves from the coming water.
“I’ve been here for 12 years so this isn’t the first time I’ve seen it like this. It is a bit concerning because at this point everyone’s in standby mode because from what I understand the flood way is being opened later today and it takes about 24 hours to see what the reaction will be,” St. Andrews resident, Mario Lopes said.
Firefighters and community officials are working to keep the rising waters from impacting any other properties.
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