KENASTON, Sask. – A rapid spring melt is finding its way into many rural peoples’ lives across the Prairies this week.
Water backed up on Beaver creek last week where it met a provincial highway near Kenaston, Sask., until it surrounded a local farm and flooded thousands of acres of cropland.
The Red River has surrounded the southern Manitoba town of Morris, staunching the north-south flow of traffic from Winnipeg to the U.S. on Highway 75.
Creeks in northeastern Saskatchewan are threatening the small farming town of Arborfield where the water will add insult to the injuries caused by two floods in that community last year.
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Heavier than average snowfalls, unseasonably warm weather and recent rainstorms on many parts of the Prairies are taxing rural drainage systems, say municipal officials and provincial water managers.
The Manitoba Hydrologic Forecast Centre says little flooding is expected on the tributaries of the Assiniboine River system, but the headwaters of the Little Saskatchewan and Shell River areas could experience some overflow.
The warm weather is causing farmland flooding by the Assiniboine’s northern tributaries between the Saskatchewan border and Brandon and on Sturgeon Creek.
In Alberta, reservoir levels on the St. Mary’s system and Oldman River are above average.
In northeastern Saskatchewan, record and near-record soil moisture levels last fall are raising the threat of spring flooding.
March snow accumulations 1.5 to three times the average for the northeastern grain belt region are adding to the problem.
“We’ve got a lot of melt still to happen and there is already flooding started on farmland in the area,” said Arborfield, Sask., mayor Randall Rusk.
“We built berms and dikes last year after the two floods so we’ll have to see how well they work this week.”
A delegation of 11 agricultural producers from that area met last week with the Saskatchewan premier Lorne Calvert and agriculture minister Mark Wartman asking for compensation and help dealing with the high moisture load.
Last fall left many producers in the Rural Municipality of Porcupine and surrounding municipalities with swampy farmland, heavily rutted fields and in unharvested crops.
They are asking the province to top up the crop insurance program for unseeded acres and compensate them for damaged equipment.
River flows on the Saskatchewan rivers are expected to remain above normal, as they have throughout the winter. Low lying farmland along the South Saskatchewan may experience minor flooding depending on runoff.
South and southwestern Saskatchewan’s Missouri River basin experienced a below average snow pack this winter due to melting conditions on and off all winter. Runoff into this basin is lower than average. Within that region the East Poplar River basin is below average and the Crookson Reservoir is not expected to fill this year.
In southeastern Saskatchewan, the Rafferty and Alameda reservoirs remain stable while Boundary has dropped slightly due to poor runoff. Little flooding is expected in the region.
No flooding has been reported in Alberta so far, but forecasters with Alberta Environment warn that the rapid melt and ice jams can quickly create localized flooding.
Rain last week increased stream flows slightly but none resulted in flooding.
The ice front on the Peace River continues to flow without incident.
