Province’s new barriers bashed by US flood experts

Flood fighting experts from the US say Manitoba may have wasted its money on “Hesco” barriers.

“They’re not designed for flood fighting, they’re designed for war use, sandbag bunkers,” Fargo, North Dakota Emergency Manager Dave Rogness explained during the Disaster Management Conference held in Winnipeg Friday.

He said the Hesco Barriers didn’t work for Fargo during its fight with record flooding along the Red River in 2009.

“They’re not the best, they were the best thing we had at the time above sandbags, but the problem is they don’t hold a lot of water for a long period of time, you can’t stack them,” Rogness said.

Just this week, the Province announced it had spent $4.5 million on 43 kilometres of the Hesco Barriers, claiming that the barriers could be stacked and would prevent a lot of labour-intensive sandbagging.

“These Hesco Barriers are very stable,” Premier Greg Selinger said Monday.

On Friday, officials defended their purchase, saying that the barriers would be used differently this time around.

“We only intend to us them as freeboard on community ring dikes or to deal with waters no greater than two or three feet,” said Steve Topping, executive director of Manitoba Water Stewardship.

The City of Winnipeg also spent a million dollars on nine kilometres of the flood-fighting devices, while the RM of St. Clements bought one kilometre.

“It’s the best we have right now to try and protect the ice from coming in and damages the homes,” said Jim Stinson, Emergency Measures Coordinator for St. Clements.