Manitoba prepares for the possibility of major flooding this spring

WINNIPEG – This month’s heavy snowfall on the Prairies has the Manitoba government warning that major flooding is possible this spring.

But Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton says the province is not expecting the situation to be as bad as it was in 2011, when the final bill totalled $1.2 billion.

Ashton says Manitoba is planning for a flood similar to 2009 when damage totalled about $60 million.

About 500 homes were flooded or damaged by shifting frozen slabs that year.

The worst of the damage occurred north of Winnipeg, where unpredictable ice jams caused sudden and severe rises in the river.

South of the capital, roads were washed out and farmland was flooded, but residents were well protected by ring dikes and by homes that were moved onto or constructed on higher ground after the so-called flood of the century in 1997.