Amphibex icebreakers head onto Red River north of Winnipeg
CBC News | Posted: February 17, 2015 5:20 PM | Last Updated: February 18, 2015
Manitoba's flood fighters are getting ready for spring — even though it's felt anything but spring-like lately — by sending icebreakers onto the Red River in preparation for the coming thaw.
The provincial government's fleet of Amphibex machines was deployed along the river in the Breezy Point area north of Winnipeg on Tuesday.
The Amphibex machines will break up about 30 kilometres of ice down the centre of the river to reduce the potential for big chunks to dam the river and cause a sudden flood.
The icebreakers will work their way south toward the city of Selkirk. They're expected to arrive there by mid-March.
"The threat is there every year. Every year we have winter, every year we have thick ice, every year we have spring break-up," Premier Greg Selinger said.
"We have seen how quickly ice-jam related flooding can develop, and the icebreaking machines and personnel will cut a path for river ice to move. This will mean added security and peace of mind for the residents upstream who are vulnerable."
Steve Topping, the province’s executive director of hydrologic forecasting and water management, says the machines could face some difficulty cutting through the river ice this year.
That's because the ice is more than 61 cm thick, which is more than 20 cm thicker than it was last year.
"Thicker ice is caused due to the low snow pack we've had this year. There's very little snow insulating the ice," Topping said.
"It does slow our progress because thicker ice is more difficult for the equipment to break up," he added. "Nonetheless, we will do the same program over 30 kilometres this year."
Flood risk low
The province will issue its first flood outlook of 2015 next week, but forecasters say the risk of flooding is relatively low.
While the ice is thicker than it was last year, river levels are low. Barring further snowfall, and if temperatures stay close to normal, the flood risk should be low as well, Topping said.
The province bought its first Amphibex machine in 2006 and has expanded the fleet to four since then.
The buoyant machines break up ice by hoisting their 21,000-kilogram bodies up onto the ice surface using an excavator-like claw. The sheer weight of the machine crushes the ice below, opening channels for the water to flow.
The Amphibexes will start at Breezy Point and work south towards the city, clearing about one kilometre per day.
Darrell Kupchik, emergency measures coordinator for the City of Selkirk, said they should be breaking ice in that area by mid-to-late March.
The province's ice-cutting machines have already been scoring the river in a grid pattern for the past week, making it easier for the Amphibexes to break the thick surface.
Ice fishing season ending
The annual arrival of the Amphibex machines spells the end of the ice fishing season along the Red River.
Notices have been taped onto the doors of every ice fishing shack on the stretch of river that the Amphibex machines will cover, informing anglers they must get off the ice by March 1.
Some who enjoy fishing in the area, like Joe Proksz, say they'd rather see the icebreakers going north first.
"I think there's a lot more people fishing here and enjoying this, so do that first and let us stay here until the 15th of March," Proksz said.
Another ice fisherman, Mike Yaworksi, says he believes the Amphibexes do work, so he has come to accept the fact that he'll have to move his shack off the river soon.
"We expect it. It happens every year," he said.