Cottagers face long weekend of flood work

Cottage owners around Lake Manitoba are spending the long weekend working to protect property from flood waters.

Mona Sedleski, the deputy reeve of the rural municipality of St. Laurent told CBC News that most of the 600 lakefront properties have sandbags and work was continuing to shore up the protective dikes and build more.

Additional sandbags were dropped off in the area on Friday and there was a call for volunteers to help with the effort.

She noted that the water on Lake Manitoba was calm early Saturday. Sedleski hoped it stayed that way because she said a wind coming from the north or the west would be devastating.

On one beach, a light drizzle was coming down on a group of people building up sandbags.

"A cottager who has been coming here since childhood just gave me a tour of what they're up against," CBC News reporter Megan Benedictson said Saturday. "He showed me cottages sitting almost right on Lake Manitoba. Cottages that could be lost or damaged by waves if a storm hits the lake."

Permanent residents along the beach are the current priority for sandbagging.