Kives, Bartley and Owen, Bruce 2011. “Time to relieve the pressure?

” Winnipeg Free
Press. Accessed May 16 2011.

Questions

1. Describe the two options available for provincial engineers in trying to limit
property damages from the flooding Assiniboine river? In your opinion do you
think they’re making the correct choice? Why or why not?

2. Every _____________ years a flood of this magnitude will happen on the

Assiniboine?

3. Using your Atlas to label the follow locations on the map of southern Manitoba.

1. Portage La Praire

2. Winnipeg
3.
4. Assiniboine River

5. Red River
6.
7. Lake Winnipeg

8. Lake Manitoba
Controlled breakout' to slow water could begin at noon; not an 'easy decision'

RM of PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE -- As early as noon today, excavators may sink their

metal teeth into Provincial Road 331 to relieve some of the pressure from an engorged
Assiniboine River.

First, heavy machines will tear a 65-metre-wide hole in the stretch of highway known as
Hoop and Holler Bend. If all goes according to the plan, tonnes of limestone and river
stone placed at either end of the gap will prevent the Assiniboine from gouging out an
even larger spillway. Water will then rush at a rate of 2,000 to 6,000 cubic feet per
second across a muddy market-garden plot, over a gravel road and straight up the front
drive of the home Sandor Arendse purchased in November to ensure his wife and infant
son were less at risk of getting flooded.

"I thought we were going to be the lucky ones this year," the 29-year-old onion grower
said Tuesday on his front lawn, as employees from his father's farm unloaded sandbags
from a flatbed truck. "They're not going to stop the water. They're just going to slow it
down," he said, referring to the effects of sandbags on the full force of the Hoop and
Holler Cut.

The hole in the road is intended to allow the Assiniboine to spill into the Elm River on its
way to the La Salle River and eventually the Red River, flooding out 150 residential
properties and 225 square kilometres of land southeast of Portage la Prairie in what the
province calls a "controlled breakout." Tuesday night, the RM of Portage la Prairie issued
a voluntary evacuation order for 150 homes. The alternative to the cut is to allow the
Assiniboine to spill on its own, potentially flooding out 850 properties and 500 square
kilometres between of Portage la Prairie and Headingley.

The cut is part of a broader, last-ditch effort to combat a one-in-300-year flood on the
normally placid Assiniboine, which is expected to flow as high as 56,000 cfs west of
Portage la Prairie within days.

In a move reminiscent of the construction of the Brunkild Z-dike during the 1997 Red
River flood, the province has contracted a small army of backhoes and bulldozers to
increase the capacity of the Portage Diversion, which carries Assiniboine River water
north to Lake Manitoba. The channel was built to divert 25,000 cfs, but the province
hopes to send up to 34,000 cfs through the diversion within days. Its ability to handle the
additional flow -- as well as rainfall in the coming days -- will determine whether the
Hoop and Holler Cut must be made, Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said on
Tuesday.
"We will use it if necessary, but we won't necessarily use it," he said. Only days ago, the
province expected the Assiniboine River to reach no more than 37,400 cfs west of
Portage. Now, officials concede they were forced to choose which residents will be
flooded.

"The people who will be affected by the controlled release are without question playing a
key role in our fight to contain the unprecedented flows on the Assiniboine River,"
Ashton told the legislature. "They are doing so by storing waters on the lands on very
little notice." Ashton said province will develop a special compensation program for
families and farmers hit by this flooding.

"This was not an easy decision," top flood fighter Steve Topping added. "But this has not
been an easy flood." Since the province first announced the Hoop and Holler plan,
residents in the wake of the expected flow have scrambled to move possessions from
their basements and build sandbag dikes around their homes. Many are receiving help
from friends, neighbours and complete strangers. All are shocked by the short lead time
and scattershot notification.

"I understand what they're doing. What frustrates me is the short notice," said Bob Kriski,
a Portage la Prairie school vice-principal who spent Tuesday building a sandbag dike
around his home, with help from members of the Norquay Hutterite Colony. Lourens
Arendse, who operates the 450-acre farm that employs his son and up to 60 workers at
peak times, said he believes the province underestimated the economic value of the
vegetable producers being sacrificed in his region. Portage la Prairie MLA David
Faurschou said the province should have consulted area residents before deciding to flood
them out.

But University of Manitoba civil engineering professor Jay Doering called the Hoop and
Holler Cut a logical move, given the proximity of the Assiniboine to the source of the
Elm River. "Better to control where it's going than to have the water decide for you,"
Doering said.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will tour Manitoba's flood zone today. On Sunday,
Harper agreed to send in the troops to help Manitoba battle the rising Assiniboine River.
Harper will arrive just before provincial crews are expected to punch a hole in the
Assiniboine River dike at noon to conduct a controlled flood. The deliberate spill
southeast of Portage la Prairie is expected to affect 150 homes and 225 square kilometres
of land to prevent an uncontrolled breach that could affect 850 homes in a 500 square-
kilometre area.

Evacuee numbers swell. As of Tuesday, 2,743 Manitobans were displaced by the flood,
including about 1,000 Brandon residents. Residents of 42 homes just south of Lake
Manitoba were put on notice to leave their homes when flooding cuts off access roads.
With more expected in the Portage Diversion in the coming days, the channel will likely
spill its banks, sending water east and west.