A Canadian-American disaster information system could alert residents of both countries of disasters like the Red River flood and reduce the damage they cause, a water board of the International Joint Commission heard earlier this month.
A flood tracking system that spans waterways that cross the international border won’t prevent another flood, but it could ease the devastation, the United States Geological Survey’s Russ Harkness told the International Souris/Red River Engineering Board during a July 10 meeting in Winnipeg.
The USGS operates stream gauging systems on the main stem of the Red River in North Dakota. It provides data to the U.S. government and state water authorities.
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The network was set up to study hydrology, Harkness said, not predict floods.
“It really wasn’t designed as a flood alert network but realistically speaking, it is the best flood alert network that’s available so it has to be used in that capacity.”
At the very least, a back-up system should be built in to any mechanism used to track floods, he said.
“During the flood a lot of the reference gauges were exposed to damage from ice and those sort of things,” he said.
Col. Mike Wonsik of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages waterways in the U.S., said running federal flood operations on the Red River this spring wasn’t too different than his experience commanding combat engineer battalions in the desert during the Gulf War.
“A flood fight is tremendously like a tactical situation,” said the commander of the corps’ St. Paul District, which includes the Red River Valley in North Dakota.
“It’s like a war … the pace is a little slower and there’s nobody shooting at you and instead of tactical units you use contractors to do the work.”
International Joint Commission boards do not set policy, but act as advisers to governments on water-related matters.
Frank Murphy, a Canadian commissioner to the six-member board, said it will hear from experts and the public before bringing recommendations to government.
“When you have such record floods it is pretty hard to predict,” Murphy said.
Earlier this month, the federal governments in both countries asked the commission to strike a new task force to look specifically at the cause and effects of the Red River flood, and make recommendations on ways to reduce flooding in the future.
The process will include public hearings in both countries on flood forecasting, flood controls, emergency preparedness and land-use practices.
The group has 18 months to compile the report. That’s a lot to cover in a short time, said Wonsik.
“That is a very wide charter to get anything of substance. It’ll be like attempting to water an elephant with a five-gallon bucket.”
