More than two weeks after flood waters peaked, the Red River Valley was still looking at almost as much water as it had in the last big flood of 1979.
Thousands of people are still out of their homes as they wait for roads to re-emerge and water to drain. High winds have blown away hopes for an early return to normal.
Last week, the reeve of Morris said some farmers were noticing unexpected erosion of their dikes because of the wind.
But Herm Martens said the dikes are holding. The water is at its widest span through his municipality and it is taking a long time to drop off. Only 30 kilometres away, farmers are seeding.
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“It’s kind of a forbidden topic,” said Martens, who is worried about getting on his own land this spring.
Several months away
Earlier in the flood, about 90 homes and farms were inundated in his area. It could be six months before some of them can make repairs and start living in their homes again, he said.
He’s hoping the area will get some volunteers to help clean up.
“People who are coming back very often to a house that’s been inundated with water, they see the loss, and they just don’t have any direction themselves. They just feel totally helpless and don’t know what to do first or last.”
Reeve Florent Beaudette said about 25 homes in his rural municipality of Montcalm have water in their ground floor and another 10 have it in their basements. His own farm house has been flooded.
Beaudette said the $100,000 limit for compensation will go a long way for most homes in his area. But farms may be another story.
“We’ve got a few cases where the garage is gone, the machine sheds have gone. They’ve just disappeared in the water and are probably on their way to Lake Winnipeg now,” he said.
It’s still too early for most farmers to apply for compensation because they can’t tell the extent of damage until waters drop.
So far, governments have given advance payments of $25 million to municipalities and individuals pinched by costs of preparing for and fighting the flood.
Governments were expected to announce a complete compensation package as early as this week. They have not yet released any estimates of total damages.
More than $12 million has been raised across Canada for flood victims. A group of people from governments, businesses and charitable organizations is expected to soon announce how it will distribute the aid.
The provincial government will also revive the Manitoba Water Commission to examine how the flood was fought and review allegations that some measures worsened the flood in some areas.
