Southern Manitoba braces as flood levels creep up in some areas ahead of forecast rains
CBC
Ron Dreger peers out over what looks more like a lake with sandbars poking up from the surface than his normally dry 1,600-hectare farm in the rural municipality of Morris, Man.
The co-owner of Country Grove Farms is struggling to remain optimistic that this growing season won't be a wash.
In a typical year, Dreger's farm would've been seeded with wheat, oats, corn, soybean and canola by the third week of April.
"We've got more rain coming so we may be lucky if we're seeding towards the end of May," Dreger said Tuesday. "The way it's looking … that might be optimistic."
The rural municipality of Morris is one of several Red River adjacent-communities that flooded between Winnipeg and the Canada-U.S. border in recent weeks after the province was hammered by three spring storm systems.
So far 26 municipalities remain under local states of emergency due to the deluge, and the RM of Morris has issued mandatory evacuation orders for several residents in Riverside.
The south and southwest took on more rain again Monday, and Morris and other municipalities in the south are bracing for more precipitation in the coming days.
The Red River already reached its crest in Emerson at the border on Sunday, and though levels are very near a peak in Morris they aren't there yet, said Ralph Groening, the reeve of the RM.
"The concern is the continuation of a very, very long 2022 flood season," he said Tuesday.
Groening said the RM has the situation mostly under control and most residents who lost road access due to recent washouts evacuated.
About 100 residents had to leave 25 homes and relocate, he said. Businesses in Rosenort continue to operate, and the community retains road access from the west and east, Groening added.
Groening said employees of the municipality have been working the last three weekends and it looks like they may be working again this weekend.
"So there's that human toll on our workers and on us as community leaders," he said.
"More water simply just adds to the stress of and difficulty of our residents to get back to what we all want, which is a return to a more normal life," he said. "There's been no let up."