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18 Manitoba municipalities under flood-related states of emergency

As the flood forecast worsens south of the border, more Manitoba municipalities have called local states of emergency following a wet weekend.

Number of communities under state of emergency triples in 4 days after heavy weekend rainfall

Rachel Bergen · CBC News ·
A road is seen washed out in Fraserwood, directly west of Gimli, Man. Fraserwood is in the RM of Armstrong, which is currently under a state of local emergency. (Submitted by Drenna Campbell)

As the flood forecast worsens south of the border, more Manitoba municipalities have called local states of emergency following a wet weekend.

As of Monday, 18 municipalities have issued local states of emergency in response to local flooding and infrastructure failure, according to the provincial government.

Four days prior, just six communities had declared states of emergency.

The Interlake rural municipality of St. Laurent is one of the most recent communities to join the list.

Reeve Cheryl Smith says the portion of the municipality east of Highway 6 is taking the biggest hit, with numerous roads being closed over the weekend.

Crews work to clear water in the RM of St. Laurent. The community declared a state of local emergency on Monday. (St. Laurent and the Surrounding Area/Facebook)

"With the overland flooding, we do worry about families and farms and businesses that are on that side of of the highway. We are doing everything possible," she said.

"The public works employees, they are out there, they're steaming culverts. We have some contractors that were hired earlier on because of the significant snowfall we got. We are opening up the ditches as a preemptive strike."

The weekend brought heavy rainfall throughout the province, including an average of 40 to 50 millimetres in the Red River Basin, according to the province.

The flood forecast south of the border also worsened slightly.

The U.S. National Weather Service predicts the Red River crest at Pembina, N.D. to be 0.61 metres (two feet) below the record set in 1997, and slightly above 2009 levels, according to data released on Monday.

That crest is expected on May 9.

The following communities have issued local states of emergency:

  • RM of Cartier.
  • RM of Morris.
  • RM of Ritchot.
  • RM of Fisher.
  • RM of Montcalm.
  • City of Morden.
  • Town of Winnipeg Beach.
  • Municipality of Pembina.
  • Town of Arborg.
  • RM of Armstrong.
  • RM of Dufferin.
  • Municipality of Bifrost – Riverton.
  • RM of Headingley.
  • RM of Thompson.
  • RM of West Interlake.
  • RM of St. Laurent.
  • RM of Grahamdale.

The province's list doesn't include First Nations. Peguis First Nation, Fisher River Cree Nation and Long Plain First Nation have also declared states of emergency.

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