Southern Manitoba soaking expected to last until Saturday afternoon

The drenching rain has started in southern Manitoba. And in some areas gulp there's snow.

A strong low-pressure system has trackedin from the Dakotas and is expected tolinger until midday Saturday, soaking the region with50-60 millimetres of precipitation and potentially causing flooding in low-lying areas, Environment Canada says.

The weather agency first issued a rainfall warning on Thursday about the approaching system. At that time, it was primarily expected toimpact the Red River Valley, a small part of the Interlake and everything through the Whiteshell.

As of Friday, the warning area had beenexpanded to include much more of the Interlake and southern Manitoba.

The system has also brought strong northwinds, with gusts between 40-60 km/h, and much cooler temperatures.

The rain was expected to giveway to heavy snow in parts of western Manitoba, includingBrandon, where a snowfall warning was issued by Environment Canada on Friday afternoon.

As of 3:30 p.m., snowfall warnings were in effect for:

• Brandon, Neepawa, Carberry, Treherne.
• Killarney,Pilot Mound,Manitou.
• Minnedosa,Riding Mountain National Park.

Anywhere from 10 to 15 centimetres of snow isexpected, although the weather service says accumulation totals will vary across regions. The snow and rain will taper off throughout Friday night.

A high of only 8 C is forecastfor most areas in the south on Friday, and Winnipeg won't get much warmer than that on Saturday, either, Environment Canada said.

The normal high for this time of year is 21 C.

The expected extent of the deluge hasprompted the province to issue an overland flood warning for some areas.

"Heavy precipitation in short duration could create high surface runoff and overland flooding," the bulletin says.

Manitoba Transportation and Infrastructure's Hydrologic Forecast Centresays up to 80 millimetres of precipitation has alreadyfallen in the past three days in the Winnipeg River system and in the Lake of the Woods watershed.

The department is opening control gates along the Whiteshell lakes to balance and manage the expected level rises along the lakes.

Thehigh winds could also raise water levels by as much as five feet or more along the south basin of Lake Manitoba, as well as shorelines near Gimli on the west side and Victoria Beach on the east side of Lake Winnipeg, the bulletin says.

Property owners are advised to take precautions.

Heavy rain can cause water to back up into basements and sewage to be released into the rivers, as happened last week when hail-packed thunderstorms brought powerful winds and tornado warnings to south-central Manitoba.

Winnipeg was hit hardest by that system, though rainamounts varied greatly, from 10-12millimetres in the east and southeast areas of the city to 29-35millimetresin the west and central areas.

More than 20 million litresof sewage was released into the Red River during that time.

About a third of the city relies on a combined sewer system pipes that collect both raw sewage and runoff from rainfall or melting snow. The combined water is sent to a sewage treatment plants, but in periods of very heavy rain, it goes directly into the rivers in order to avoid backup into basements.

But that doesn't always work, either.

More than a dozen people on Truro Street in the St. James neighbourhood had water and sewage back up into their basements last week. And they'reworried about it happening again.

"Your heart completely stops, your stomach drops and you're thinking, is that what I think it is?"Jennifer Schappertsaid about realizing her basement was flooding last week.

She and17 of her neighbours have joined a Facebook group called Truro Street Basement Flooding"to chat, rant, compare notes" and generally support one another.

On Friday, at least one person was reporting flooding once again.

In a statement, the city said it is aware of the issueson Truro and is working to fix them.It also offers tips on how all city residents can reduce the risk of basement flooding.