After a busy 10 days building up its dikes, the town of Melita, Man., is ready for the crest of the Souris River.
“All the permanent dikes have been completed, the sewage lagoons have been built up,” said Grant Hume, councillor and manager of the emergency operations centre for the Town of Melita, in southwestern Manitoba.
“Everything is done…. We are now diked to beat the band,” added Hume.
Earlier this month, forecasters at Manitoba Water Stewardship predicted the Souris River would crest at the end of April above 1999 levels, the last major flood in the area.
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Consequently, on April 17 the province committed $500,000 to raise Melita’s permanent dike to 60 centimetres above 1999 water levels.
That work was completed April 26, Hume said, so the town can breathe a sigh of relief.
“The river is definitely high, but it hasn’t reached the level of the sandbag dike (along Highway 3),” said Hume, earlier this week.
Fortunately for the residents in Melita, population 1,000, Manitoba Water Stewardship forecasters have revised their predictions and the water crest is now expected in Melita May 4, at 15 centimetres below 1999 levels.
Unless the region gets hit with a heavy rain, the forecasters expect water to flow out of the Souris River Valley faster than 1999, when flood waters stuck around until June.
That means farmland in the valley south of Melita, toward Coulter, Man., should dry up earlier than expected.
Further east, water levels are declining in the Red River Valley, between Winnipeg and the U.S. border, and should begin to recede more rapidly by this weekend, according to forecasters.
