St. Andrews on alert as ice jam moves north of Selkirk

People who live along the Red River in the rural municipalityof St. Andrews, north of Winnipeg, have been told to remove items from low-lying areas and prepare for a possible evacuation.

The ice jam that was clogging the river in Selkirkhaslet go and is nowmoving north towards Netley-LibauMarsh, officials say.

"I'd be worried now about more the residents of Breezy Point alongNetley Creek, that area there," Selkirk Mayor Larry Johannsontold CBC News on Wednesday morning.

"I tried to contact some residents there on the creek last night, and they didn't have anything there yet, so I'm really praying for them that they get through this dilemma now."

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The RM of St. Andrews has issued a code red alert to people who live along the Red River and creeks feeding the river.

Ice jams choke up the river, damming it and quickly forcing the waterlevelup.

Tuesday night was a sleepless one forBreezy Point resident RoxanneAnderson, who is bracing herself for what has almost become an annual dreadthe ice jam's arrival.

"We built our house 700 feet away from the river. We built on the highest point of the land, and that went under in 2009," she said."Will it go under today? I don't think so, but I have to worry every year now."

In 2014, ice ripped apart her property when it moved through the area.

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"[The river's]state of nature has been changed. It is not the same as it has been in the years past, in years well past before 1996," Anderson said. "What's going to happen todayI can't tell you. In years past I could tell you what would happen. We would sit on the riverbank and we would watch the ice go out. We wouldn't worry.

"Today, I believe I'm still on emergency evacuation. I doubt if it will come to that but I just can't predict it, and that shouldn't be."

As of early Wednesday morning, the ice jam had not yet reached Anderson's property, but she is keeping a close eye on it.

She can see the ice jam south of herand ice to the north of her, but there is open water in front of her property.