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Five years ago: The Flood of 2011 became a flood

Five years ago: The Flood of 2011 became a flood

Adam

Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Adam
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 15663

Five years ago: The Flood of 2011 became a flood
4/12/2016 at 8:15 AM

Believe it or, it was already five years ago today that the Assiniboine River reached the level of "flood stage" at Brandon in the Flood of 2011.

Reflecting back, the evolving eBrandon discussion thread that followed the ups and downs of the coming weeks and a river that was technically in a state of flooding into late July:
http://www.ebrandon.ca/messagethread.aspx?message_id=451242&cat_id=410

The assortment of 170 photos including shots from the ground and in the air:
http://www.ebrandon.ca/messagethread_photos.aspx?message_id=451242&cat_id=410

and aerials from a shoot I did on May 12 with the river at near peak level:
http://www.ebrandon.ca/messagethread_photos.aspx?message_id=469134&cat_id=410

There will be folks in our community with stories for many decades to come of how different life was in the city and Southwestern Manitoba that spring. I feel very lucky that I neither lived or worked in areas that had to fear the worst if dikes had failed. To this day I can only imagine what it was like for those who had to be evacuated from homes and businesses and those who had to go to sleep with the window open just to make sure they heard the emergency siren should it go off in the middle of the night in the event of a dike breach. For anyone not just in Brandon but around Westman that had to put out a volunteer call in hopes that enough people could help them build up enough of a sandbag wall to protect their property.

For myself the lasting memory of memories would probably be on May 6. At that time the flood was quite bad and thought to be peaking. I had just landed from being up in the air taking these photos of what was thought to be the worst of the Assiniboine when I received a phone call from our then-Mayor. At the time there was no dedicated communications staff at the City and mindful of how many folks were following this website for information she wanted to be sure that I was aware of changes being announced regarding the flood. Because of faulty river readings upstream in Saskatchewan the flood was about to get much worse than originally forecasted and the city's dikes were immediately being raised. I remember her reminding me that as things got worse to keep in mind my role of covering the story and not being the story. I took that responsibility very seriously in making sure this website was a place for people to get and share info and sort fact from fiction when stories and reports were coming fast and furious. For her faults and the areas she badly messed up in during her term I always respected her making that call and presumably other similar ones herself and making it clear she recognized and owned her role as elected leader of a city going through one of its most dangerous and historic events.

Of course just three years later we had a flood that would break 2011's record. Because of how quickly the water came during that flood one can't help but wonder what would've been in 2014 had we not experienced the Flood of 2011 and already had a dike system in place.
Kida

Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 470

Kida
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 470

I was evacuated
4/12/2016 at 6:31 PM

I was actually one of the evacueese of the flood. It was less than 1/2 a block away from my basement apartment. I was lucky there was no water damage.
Cruiser

Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 539

Cruiser
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 539

Flood
4/12/2016 at 8:17 PM

I often think that we were lucky in an odd sort of way for the 2011 flood. Had we not experienced the flood of 300 years at that time we would not have had all the dikes built in preparing for that which really saved us from a disaster with the 2013 flood. If you remember the 2013 flooding was not from high spring water levels but rather from heavy rains meaning we had very little notice or insight that it was coming, unlike spring flooding. Because of the 2011 work that had already been done we were able to meet the challenges we faced in 2013.

Trevor B

Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 8881

Trevor B

Joined: Apr 2005

Posts: 8881

4/12/2016 at 8:36 PM

Cruiser said "I often think that we were lucky in an odd sort of way for the 2011 flood. Had we not experienced the flood of 300 years at that time we would not have had all the dikes built in preparing for that which really saved us from a disaster with the 2013 flood. If you remember the 2013 flooding was not from high spring water levels but rather from heavy rains meaning we had very little notice or insight that it was coming, unlike spring flooding. Because of the 2011 work that had already been done we were able to meet the challenges we faced in 2013. "

was in 2014 that we had that flood with the monsoon type rains.

Cruiser

Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 539

Cruiser

Joined: Sep 2006

Posts: 539

Trevor

4/12/2016 at 8:45 PM

Trevor B said "

Cruiser said "I often think that we were lucky in an odd sort of way for the 2011 flood. Had we not experienced the flood of 300 years at that time we would not have had all the dikes built in preparing for that which really saved us from a disaster with the 2013 flood. If you remember the 2013 flooding was not from high spring water levels but rather from heavy rains meaning we had very little notice or insight that it was coming, unlike spring flooding. Because of the 2011 work that had already been done we were able to meet the challenges we faced in 2013. "

was in 2014 that we had that flood with the monsoon type rains. "

Right you are....

braid
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 5434

braid
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 5434

hmmm
4/13/2016 at 12:20 AM

This thread made me realise they don't seem to bring it up much this election. You'd think they would be mentioning it somewhat in case it happens again.