Anne Waldner will never forget her family’s frantic efforts to fend off the flood that swept through the Red River Valley last year.
The Waldner family built sandbag dikes around two houses on their farm near Rosenort, Man. A temporary dirt dike was built to protect their sow barn from approaching flood waters.
A lot was at stake as the flood swept onto their farm. The Waldners couldn’t afford to lose the livestock in their farrow-to-finish barn.
“If we lost the barn, we’d be finished,” Waldner said last week.
Read Also
Land crash warning rejected
A technical analyst believes that Saskatchewan land values could be due for a correction, but land owners and FCC say supply/demand fundamentals drive land prices – not mathematical models
The Waldners’ determination to fight the flood was heightened by past experience. In 1979, they were forced to sell their hogs when flood waters hit the Red River region that spring.
“It took us years to catch up,” Waldner recalled. “We never really did catch up from that.”
Luckily, the Waldners’ barn wasn’t swamped by the 1997 flood. And unlike a lot of other farmers in the Red River Valley, they didn’t have to move their livestock.
The Waldners now have a large permanent dike built around their sow barn. The dike was built last summer as a form of insurance against future floods.
“It’s a huge dike and it’s fairly wide so it should hold,” Waldner said.
The 1997 flood forced the evacuation of about 28,000 Manitobans from their homes. Many of those people were from towns and farms in the Red River Valley south of Winnipeg.
Efforts are continuing to prepare for future floods. The Manitoba government hopes more support can be given to people trying to flood-proof their properties.
The province wants the cap on flood-proofing assistance for homeowners raised from $30,000 to $60,000. The assistance is shared 50/50 by the province and Ottawa. Ottawa has not yet approved the cap increase.
“We’ve had some pretty expensive dikes that are going in,” said natural resources minister Glen Cummings. “There are some areas where the dikes are going to be exceptionally high.”
The flood-proofing program pays 75 percent of costs to raise or move a home, or for dike work. The program encompasses farm buildings.
Thousands of people have applied for the flood-proofing assistance. More than $16 million has already been paid to 597 applicants.
“There’s still an awful lot of work to do,” Cummings said. “Some properties are being moved and some are being elevated. There are still a lot of dikes to be built.”
Efforts are also ongoing to develop and improve dikes around communities caught in the path of last year’s flood. A $30-million community dike program was created to support the work.
Niverville, Man., was among the communities caught in the flood’s path. A temporary dike was built to block the turbulent waters. Residents now await the construction of a more permanent flood barrier. Mayor Clarence Braun expects construction to start next year.
“The temporary dike had to be built on four days notice,” Braun said. “We had to scramble as opposed to thinking it through. That’s why we’re looking at something more permanent now.”
The costs of the 1997 flood continue to rise in Manitoba. The Manitoba Water Commission recently pegged those costs at $500 million.
