Manitoba at low risk for major spring flooding

The March flood outlook continues to suggest the risk of widespread major flooding remains low to moderate across most of the province, with a moderate risk of some overland flooding in low-lying areas along the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, Infrastructure Minister Ron Schuler announced today.

“After the storm earlier this month, the risk of major flooding remains low on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, but there is a moderate risk of some overland or overbank flooding,” said Schuler. “Levels along the Red River and the Assiniboine River are forecasted to remain below flood protection levels.”

Highlights of the outlook include:

• the risk of major flooding continues to be low for the Souris, Qu’Appelle and Pembina Rivers and their tributaries and within flood protection levels even with unfavourable weather conditions;
• the risk of major flooding in the Interlake region and for most major lakes, including Lakes Winnipeg, Manitoba and Dauphin and the Whiteshell lakes is low; and
• the risk of major flooding is moderate on northern basins, including the Churchill and Carrot Rivers in The Pas region.

“We continue to monitor for ice-jam related flooding due to the thickness of the ice on some of Manitoba’s rivers and streams,” said Schuler.  “The cold winter temperatures and less snow cover created above-normal ice conditions.”

The use of flood management infrastructure will now include the Red River Floodway under normal and unfavourable weather conditions.  PTH 75 is expected to remain open throughout the spring.

The Portage Diversion will likely be used for ice control along the Lower Assiniboine River and also to limit downstream Assiniboine River flows in case of unfavorable weather conditions.  The Shellmouth Dam will continue operations to reach summer levels after the spring run-off.

Flows along the Assiniboine River at Portage la Prairie could reach just over 17,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) in unfavorable weather conditions, which would require the use of the Portage Diversion to limit the downstream flow to 10,000 cfs.

The March outlook and other information is available online at www.gov.mb.ca/flooding.