As the Victoria Day long weekend arrives in Manitoba, flood conditions have people moving in different directions.
While some cottages and campers are making alternate plans due to water-ravaged territory, a number of southern Manitoban residents displaced by floodwaters are starting to head back home.
In the Rural Municipality of Ritchot, just south of Winnipeg, around a dozen families will be moving back into their homes.
“The homes were fine,” said Mayor Chris Ewen. “It’s the infrastructure and the day-to-day activities of driving around the ring dike.
“There’s one home that went underwater because they didn’t have their structural dike system in place, but all the other homes we had no issues with. They were above the levels that were regulated and mandated by the province.”
In the Whiteshell region, however, floodwater is climbing to levels unseen in at least two decades, just as the official cottage season is supposed to kick off.
Albert Bos’s family owns Riverview Lodge on Eleanor Lake, about an hour east of Winnipeg.
He said what’s typically an exciting time of year has been much less so this year.
“Yesterday I’d say the water was at least four feet back from the dikes, they were totally dry and then just from overnight, we’re right up to the whole dike,” Bos said. “It’s moved ten feet closer to the lodge and you see it coming up every hour.”
Bos hopes water levels don’t climb any higher, despite the hours spent sandbagging the area.
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