Manitoba flooding compensation to be announced

The Manitoba government will announce Tuesday details of the compensation program for flood victims.

Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said the announcement will include details on the future of flood-fighting in Manitoba.

"The new flood of record is 2011, and it's gonna bring with it I think many lessons on what we can do in the future on mitigation," Ashton said. "So we're moving decisively on all fronts."

The province has previously promised to provide special compensation to people in the area of the Hoop and Holler breach zone, where crews cut into a dike, deliberately flooding a number of properties. 

Ashton said the province is slowly moving into the recovery phase of the flood.

The Assiniboine River is steadily decreasing in Brandon with a decrease of about 15 centimetres a day for the past several days.

The city of Brandon said Saturday that the Assiniboine had gone down 19 centimetres since Friday and was expected to drop another 91 centimetres by the end of May.

Officials are still working to see how, or if, this weekend's rain will affect river levels.

Lake Manitoba still needs volunteers

While much of the province winds down, people along Lake Manitoba want it known that their flood fight is far from over. Waters there will continue to rise until June.

Mona Sedleski, the deputy reeve of the rural municipality of St. Laurent, said a 52-year-old cottager at Laurentia Beach died of a heart attack after volunteering to save flood-threatened properties in the municipality.

The man led a large group of sandbaggers going from property to property Saturday and went back home to Winnipeg because he wasn't feeling well. He died Saturday night.

Sedleski said the area is still in need of volunteers, though she doesn't want anyone overdoing it. Some people have been shoring up protection for two weeks and exhaustion is beginning to set in. 

Anyone who can volunteer is being asked to call 646-2259.

Fred Pisclevich, who lives in Twin Lakes Beach, said the road to his home is completely underwater. Pisclevich said local officials have told him military personnel in the area will be leaving Monday.

"We need help for an extended period of time to protect the properties and everything that [is] out here and we're not getting it," he said. "And everybody's saying the same thing, and it's falling on deaf ears."