Last Members of Manitoba First Nation Leaving as Reserve Monitors Flood

By: The Canadian Press 04/25/2011

WINNIPEG - The last residents of a Manitoba reserve on the U.S. border were leaving Monday if they weren't needed to monitor flooding, said the man in charge of the evacuation.


Howard Nelson said about 800 members of the Roseau River First Nation would have traded life on the reserve south of Winnipeg for that in city hotels.


He said the evacuees could be there for five to 10 days, but it was hard to predict because the road into the community might be closed by flooding.


However, the water on Monday was still almost two metres below the top of a protective dike.
Nelson said pumps were being used to get water out of almost 30 flooded basements in low-lying areas.


This year's spring flooding has forced about 1,600 people to leave their homes in Manitoba — most from Roseau River and the Peguis First Nation along the Fisher River near Lake Winnipeg.

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 The number of people displaced by the flooding is only a fraction of what it was in the "flood of the century" in '97. 

That's the good news.

Fact is, floodwaters also cover a larger area of the province than ever-before experienced. Several communities in the Red River Valley are still bracing for water levels which will eclipse those of the flood of '09. And that will be the second-worst flooding in a-century-&-a-half! l.p.
The normally tranquil Boggy Creek, near Roblin (above), is now swollen to a torrent. About a kilometer downstream, it empties into Lake of the Prairies on the Assiniboine River. (l.p. video)

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