Hoop and Holler dike breach effects linger a year later

One year ago this morning, Manitoba officials made an unprecedented move to make a cut in the Hoop and Holler Bend and send floodwaters onto farmland in the area.

Excavators created a 20-metre wide breach through a roadway that had doubled as a dike. Before long, much of produce farmer Shea Doherty's land was submerged.

"I don't want to relive it, more than anything. It's something we found out later didn't have to be done. That was the disappointing thing about it," he said, adding the family business income in 2011 dropped by more than a third.

Today, Doherty is still waiting for much of the compensation he was promised by the province.

The same goes for Dean Melnic, who lives a few dozen metres from were the dike was cut. At the time, the government promised him full compensation for any damage.

While he was paid for damage to his house and basement, the province has refused to fully compensate Melnic for other costs. In the end he says he was out of pocket "$5,000 to $10,000."

"You know, they had to bring in trucks and they damaged a lot of the lawn, etc. It was nickel-and-dime right to the end and we were not fully compensated for that," he said.

"They were only paying a certain percentage and in the end, they were saying a lot more people were worse off. To me, that is an unacceptable answer."

Pressure on swollen river

The cut was made to relieve pressure on the swollen Assiniboine River.

Officials were concerned that if they didn't create a controlled breach, other dikes along the river's path could collapse and cause an uncontrolled flood

"An uncontrolled break would be catastrophic and unpredictable, spilling water onto more than 500 square kilometres of land," Premier Greg Selinger said at the time.

That would impact 850 homes, he said

The breach was expected to send water over about 180 square kilometres and threaten 150 homes instead. But in the end, fewer than 3.5 square kilometres were affected by the breach and the dike was sealed a week later when river levels began to recede.

There were many questions in the days and weeks afterwards about whether or not the breach was truly needed.

Doherty's greenhouse business is still struggling despite efforts to advertise and let people know 'hey guys, we're still here, we're still open," Doherty said.

"I'm still having people walk in the door, [saying] 'I'm so glad. We heard you were closed. We weren't going to come out here.'"

Although the business is open, it can't offer everything it usually does.

Doherty still can't plant certain vegetables and he says it will take years for the strawberry operation to recover because the land is recovering from months spent underwater.