Manitoba community faces fall flooding emergency

Flooding doesn't only happen in the spring anymore, as residents in one central Manitoba community learned this week as an ice jam made the Waterhen River rise dramatically.

The provincial government issued a emergency prevention order for the community of Waterhen on Thursday.

Volunteers have sandbagged four homes in the community of about 200, located about 80 kilometres north of Dauphin.

Frazil ice, a slushyformation in which ice crystals form in fast-moving water, has formed on the mouth of the Waterhen River where it flows into Lake Manitoba, creating an ice jam. On Thursday, water levels had risen about 30 centimetres in a 24-hour period.

The province's amphibious excavator is working on the ice jam.

Brock Holowachuk, a senior planning officer with the province's Emergency Measures Organization, said emergencies such as the one in Waterhen emphasize the importance of communities having flexible and adaptable emergency plans in place.

"Whether it's flooding from frazil ice or wind-driven water or overland flooding, we've over the last five or six years had flooding in early March and we've had flooding in late November in Manitoba," said Holowachuk.

Meanwhile, a flood watch is in place for the nearby Dauphin River, which has been flowing at a higher than average rate.