NEWTON, Man. – Exhausted people sit on a sandbag dike and squat in the yard of a rural home that might be flooded the next day.
Many have been awake for more than 30 hours, and most have moved thousands of pounds of sandbags in a frenzied effort to protect local homes.
But even though they are bone-tired, smiles break out when a rumble is heard and a tall man cries out: “There’s our truck.”
The line of volunteers from local farms, Hutterite colonies and from as far away as Winnipeg and Steinbach rises and prepares for the next load of sandbags sent from the rural municipality sandbagging centre.
This was a common scene yesterday across the area east of Portage La Prairie that the provincial government was preparing to intentionally flood.
The area hadn’t initially been expected to flood, but now provincial authorities were considering saving 800 homes downstream by breaking the dikes at the Hoop and Holler Bend so that oceans of water could flood across a wide plain and into other rivers, streams and drainage systems.
Some in the area denounced the decision to intentionally sacrifice them to save others who would more naturally experience a flood, but most seemed willing to be sacrifices if that would help others.
However, a sense of bewilderment animated many as they wondered why they had been given such little notice for a planned break of the dikes. Most only heard at midnight the night before of the government’s plans for May 11.
The area contains some of Manitoba’s largest vegetable farming enterprises, which employ hundreds of workers and support an important industry for Portage la Prairie and the province.
Henry Dyck, who operates a tree nursery that can be seen from the house being sandbagged, had been told the flood waters likely wouldn’t reach him because he’s protected by a highway.
However, he said he would be underwater too if authorities forgot to block the culverts beside his land.
“I have no sense of security,” he said.
However, he was helping neighbours protect their property because he didn’t feel right shoring up his own defences when nearby homes faced greater dangers.
A crop of nursery trees has probably been lost or delayed on Dyck’s farm. They can’t be removed and transplanted if they leaf out, and if the soil remains saturated, as they were last week, they will drown.
“It’s pretty well a given that we won’t be able to harvest,” said Dyck.
They can be harvested in the fall if they are alive and not too big.
Grey clouds hung over the area all day, threatening rain that could cause major problems on local roads, premature flooding of the Assiniboine River or early intentional breaching of the dikes.
But luck held, and rain was light.
As the day wore on and the sandbag wall at this home grew to the necessary height, volunteers got ready to head to the next place that needed help.
Few knew when they’d be able to get some sleep.
