The 1997 Red River Flood
The Red River in Manitoba and the U.S. states of Minnesota and North Dakota has flooded repeatedly through the centuries, endangering lives and property. The worst flood on record was in 1826, when waters reached 11.1m above the river bed, but floods in 1948 and 1950 reached a high of 9.2m. After these disasters, which involved the evacuation of 10 000 and $606 million (1997 dollars) of property damage, the government decided to set up flood safety measures. The province constructed the Red River Floodway in 1968, put up permanent dikes in eight towns south of Winnipeg, and built clay dikes and diversion dams in the Winnipeg area. Other flood control structures completed later were the Portage Diversion, and the Shellmouth Dam on the Assiniboine. But even with these flood protection measures, in 1997 the province experienced a flood of 7.5m, which caused 28,000 people to be evacuated and $500 million dollars in damage to property and infrastructure. Called the "The Flood of the Century", the 1997 flood had a probability of occurence of about 1 in 100, and came close to overcoming Winnipeg's existing flood protection system.Factors that contributed to the flood's severity were an overabundant snowfall the previous winter followed by a higher-than-usual amount of rain in the spring. The flood started in the lower reaches of the Red, in North Dakota. The town of Grand Forks experienced total destruction when the sudden rise in the river caught citizens unaware. Towns further south in Manitoba, forewarned by footage of Grand Forks buildings burning and covered in metres of water, built ring dikes to protect their homes and properties, and the province of Manitoba called in the Canadian Armed Forces, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the provincial Department of Natural Resources. Thousands of volunteers also helped to build sandbag dikes around homes and property.
Almost all of the ring dikes around the towns held, save one - St. Agathe. The town's dike system was prepared for the river approaching from the south, but the river had spread and swamped the town from the west.
At the flood`s peak in Canada on May 4, the Red River occupied an area of 1,840 square kilometres with more than 256,000 hectares of land underwater. Nicknamed the "Red Sea", this temporary lake forced about 75,000 people to abandon their homes. $450 million in damage was caused.
The province of Manitoba commission the Internation Joint Commission (IJC) to provide a report on the flood event and to recommend measures to ensure further flood protection for the city of Winnipeg.