Minimor
Well-Known Member
This is kind of long…
Our city has made huge preparations for the spring flood this year; they raised the permanent dikes, and constructed sandbag dikes to protect 1st & 18th Streets, which are the two streets that offer access to the city from the north. Highway 1 comes in from east & west, highway 10 from the north—and from all 3 you take 1st or 18th to get from the north end down into the river valley across the flood plain into the main part of Brandon. There is also Veteran’s Way, which comes into Brandon from the east—it intersects 1st St. right in the middle of the flood plain…a couple miles east of Brandon we can turn off Veteran’s Way onto Hwy #110, the eastern bypass, and go south over a bridge there, and then from there can get into the south end of Brandon.
This is 1st Street today. This photo is looking south. The little cross road is where the southbound lane was filling up with water on Tuesday:
photoOn the left side of the above photo is a soccer field. The goals in that field are completely covered by water, which gives some indication of how deep that water is.
Another photo of 1st Street, looking north:
http://www.ebrandon.ca/photo.aspx?picture_id=20093 At the top of the photo you see an intersection—Veteran’s Way goes to the right, Kirkaldy Drive goes to the left, leading to 18th Street and the Corral Center.
This is the eastern bypass, #110, looking south: (This is truly impressive when you drive this stretch of road!!)
http://www.ebrandon.ca/photo.aspx?picture_id=20088
This photo: http://www.ebrandon.ca/photo.aspx?picture_id=20085 is looking north. In the foreground is the railroad bridge; center is the home and buildings that are part of the local strawberry farm, which was evacuated today. The owners were given 20 minutes to get out—they’ve been trying to save their long driveway, but lost that battle today. You can see the flooded driveway going straight up to the top of the photo toward the left side—the road that runs across the top of the photo is Veterans Way. Brandon is just to the left side of the photo, about 1 ½ miles west of the berry farm.
I use Veteran’s Way to drive to/from work every day—I work downtown so have to take 1st Street to get to the office in the south/central part of the city. Since 1st & 18th have been sandbagged with the super sandbags I’ve had my doubts about their effectiveness, and was counting on using the 110 if 1st Street ends up flooding. That hope is dashed today. This morning the water was right up to the bottom of the 110 bridge; if it comes any higher (and it is going to!) it will be pushing on the bridge, and I won’t be crossing it. I doubt they will even keep it open, even though it has to rise another few feet before it will actually flood the bridge.
This photo: http://www.ebrandon.ca/photo.aspx?picture_id=20104 shows 18th Street. Photo is taken from the west. At the top of the photo is the Corral Center—a shopping complex that includes a Credit Union, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Michael’s, Future Shop and many more shops—all being protected by the sandbag dike along the near side of the street. At the bottom of the photo, covered by flood waters, is the Grand Valley Road, sealed off from 18th by the sandbags.
Until today the city has been confident that their flood preparations have been enough. But this afternoon, things shifted into something resembling panic mode. All residents and businesses in the flood plain have been put on evacuation watch. Sandbag dikes are being reinforced and raised. I’m not sure if they’re doing anything with the earth dikes….the problem is, it’s just been discovered that there has been an error in the measurements that have been taken further west (Qu’Apelle ) have been incorrect—the water levels there are actually a couple of feet higher than measurements have indicated. Result—there is a lot more water to come from the west than has been expected—and it’s now coming fast for Brandon. Instead of our dikes being 3 feet above the river’s expected crest, it now seems the dikes may be only 1 foot or less above crest level.
By this time I expect that Veterans Way has been closed between the 110 and 1st Street. When I came home at 4:30 the water was lapping about 6-10 inches from the edge of the pavement. At 8:30 this morning it was 2 or 2 ½ feet from the pavement, so it’s risen a lot in 7 hours. By now the water is surely over the road for about a ¼ mile stretch. If the 110 bridge is closed I’ll have to detour north to the TransCanada, then take 1st Street into the city. If 1st Street happens to flood, I’ll have to go south of Shilo & over the bridge there, then come west and then north into town—31 miles each way rather than the usual 12 miles each way when I take Veterans Way. I’m told the bridge south of Shilo is still well above the water, so it should stay open, unless….
The other thing is—I was told just tonight that there is some concern about Shellmouth Dam—Shellmouth is on Lake of the Prairies, north of here, and normally used to control river levels and prevent flooding. The dam is full, possibly above capacity—the dam is as long as a football field and water is flowing over the top of it in a sheet 5 feet deep—I’m told that the dam was actually vibrating, if that’s true or not, I don’t know. I’m told that if it were to give way it would take 2 days for the water to get to Brandon—and it would likely take out every bridge between Shellmouth & Winnipeg. Hopefully that will not happen!!
Our city has made huge preparations for the spring flood this year; they raised the permanent dikes, and constructed sandbag dikes to protect 1st & 18th Streets, which are the two streets that offer access to the city from the north. Highway 1 comes in from east & west, highway 10 from the north—and from all 3 you take 1st or 18th to get from the north end down into the river valley across the flood plain into the main part of Brandon. There is also Veteran’s Way, which comes into Brandon from the east—it intersects 1st St. right in the middle of the flood plain…a couple miles east of Brandon we can turn off Veteran’s Way onto Hwy #110, the eastern bypass, and go south over a bridge there, and then from there can get into the south end of Brandon.
This is 1st Street today. This photo is looking south. The little cross road is where the southbound lane was filling up with water on Tuesday:
photoOn the left side of the above photo is a soccer field. The goals in that field are completely covered by water, which gives some indication of how deep that water is.
Another photo of 1st Street, looking north:
http://www.ebrandon.ca/photo.aspx?picture_id=20093 At the top of the photo you see an intersection—Veteran’s Way goes to the right, Kirkaldy Drive goes to the left, leading to 18th Street and the Corral Center.
This is the eastern bypass, #110, looking south: (This is truly impressive when you drive this stretch of road!!)
http://www.ebrandon.ca/photo.aspx?picture_id=20088
This photo: http://www.ebrandon.ca/photo.aspx?picture_id=20085 is looking north. In the foreground is the railroad bridge; center is the home and buildings that are part of the local strawberry farm, which was evacuated today. The owners were given 20 minutes to get out—they’ve been trying to save their long driveway, but lost that battle today. You can see the flooded driveway going straight up to the top of the photo toward the left side—the road that runs across the top of the photo is Veterans Way. Brandon is just to the left side of the photo, about 1 ½ miles west of the berry farm.
I use Veteran’s Way to drive to/from work every day—I work downtown so have to take 1st Street to get to the office in the south/central part of the city. Since 1st & 18th have been sandbagged with the super sandbags I’ve had my doubts about their effectiveness, and was counting on using the 110 if 1st Street ends up flooding. That hope is dashed today. This morning the water was right up to the bottom of the 110 bridge; if it comes any higher (and it is going to!) it will be pushing on the bridge, and I won’t be crossing it. I doubt they will even keep it open, even though it has to rise another few feet before it will actually flood the bridge.
This photo: http://www.ebrandon.ca/photo.aspx?picture_id=20104 shows 18th Street. Photo is taken from the west. At the top of the photo is the Corral Center—a shopping complex that includes a Credit Union, Safeway, Wal-Mart, Home Depot, Michael’s, Future Shop and many more shops—all being protected by the sandbag dike along the near side of the street. At the bottom of the photo, covered by flood waters, is the Grand Valley Road, sealed off from 18th by the sandbags.
Until today the city has been confident that their flood preparations have been enough. But this afternoon, things shifted into something resembling panic mode. All residents and businesses in the flood plain have been put on evacuation watch. Sandbag dikes are being reinforced and raised. I’m not sure if they’re doing anything with the earth dikes….the problem is, it’s just been discovered that there has been an error in the measurements that have been taken further west (Qu’Apelle ) have been incorrect—the water levels there are actually a couple of feet higher than measurements have indicated. Result—there is a lot more water to come from the west than has been expected—and it’s now coming fast for Brandon. Instead of our dikes being 3 feet above the river’s expected crest, it now seems the dikes may be only 1 foot or less above crest level.
By this time I expect that Veterans Way has been closed between the 110 and 1st Street. When I came home at 4:30 the water was lapping about 6-10 inches from the edge of the pavement. At 8:30 this morning it was 2 or 2 ½ feet from the pavement, so it’s risen a lot in 7 hours. By now the water is surely over the road for about a ¼ mile stretch. If the 110 bridge is closed I’ll have to detour north to the TransCanada, then take 1st Street into the city. If 1st Street happens to flood, I’ll have to go south of Shilo & over the bridge there, then come west and then north into town—31 miles each way rather than the usual 12 miles each way when I take Veterans Way. I’m told the bridge south of Shilo is still well above the water, so it should stay open, unless….
The other thing is—I was told just tonight that there is some concern about Shellmouth Dam—Shellmouth is on Lake of the Prairies, north of here, and normally used to control river levels and prevent flooding. The dam is full, possibly above capacity—the dam is as long as a football field and water is flowing over the top of it in a sheet 5 feet deep—I’m told that the dam was actually vibrating, if that’s true or not, I don’t know. I’m told that if it were to give way it would take 2 days for the water to get to Brandon—and it would likely take out every bridge between Shellmouth & Winnipeg. Hopefully that will not happen!!
