Features

InteractiveRed River Floodway

Watch how the floodway protects Winnipeg

Your PhotosSubmit your photo

Share your images of the flood

InteractiveManitoba Flood Protection

Follow the flows of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers.

InteractiveHow to Keep Your Basement Dry

How a sump pump and backwater valve can protect your property

InteractiveFlood Levels

At James Avenue, Winnipeg

InteractiveIce Jams

What is an ice jam?

Flood Map

Past Floods

Digital ArchivesRed River Rising: Manitoba Floods

1950 - 2003

Photo GalleryYour Photos

User submitted photos of the 2009 flood

Audio SlideshowFargo Flood

CBC reporters take you behind the scenes of their coverage

Photo GalleryAerial Photos

View of the Rising Red

Audio SlideshowFighting the Flood

Following the volunteers through their fight with the red river

ImageAreas Flooded by the Red River

Comparing 1950, 1979, 1996 and 1997

Flood TImelines

1997

April 18

The water crested in Fargo; 35,000 people left homeless.

April 19

Water began to flood streets in Grand Forks.

April 20

The Red was out of its banks.

April 23

Evacuation of area between Emerson and Winnipeg began. By 8 p.m. the next day, 17,000 Manitobans had left their homes (in addition to the 3,200 already ordered out.)

April 24

The crest at Emerson came in at just under 792.5 feet. Expected crest was 795', and dikes built to 797 feet.

April 25

3000 armed forces personnel were in the province; the province put out a call for 4,500 more in case the Bunkild dike failed; at the height of the crisis, there were nearly 8,500 armed forces personnel in province fighting the flood

April 30

The Red was backing up into the Seine and Assiniboine, and water pushed through sandbags on Roslyn Road and Wellington Crescent.

2009

March 23

Dominion City was the first community in Manitoba to declare state of emergency; evacuation alerts handed out to 850 residents.

March 25

Ice jam caused RM's of St. Andrews, St. Clements, East and West St. Paul to declare states of emergency; 30 homes evacuated.

March 26

95 people evacuated from Roseau River First Nation.

March 28

River crested in Fargo at 40.82'; it was feared 30,000 could be left homeless.

March 31

State of emergency declared in Selkirk.

April 1

River crested at 49.34' in Grand Forks.

April 8

1 p.m., Winnipeg Floodway was opened after ice jams cleared.

April 10

Good Friday, residents of St. Andrews and St. Clements received evacuation notices.; homes were smashed and knocked off their basements and footings by 7' (2.1 meter) high sheets of ice.

April 12

Winnipeg was clear of ice blocks and ice jams

79 year old Mary Silverthorn and her husband Glenn died after their car was swept into the Woody River.

April 14

Prime Minister Harper toured flooded parts of the province.

April 15

Winnipeg declared a state of emergency.

April 16

The Red River crested in Winnipeg at 22.6'. Without the floodway, the city would have been submerged under 9.23 meters of water.

April 18

Rreported that 777 square kilometers of land in the province was under water, at some places 19 kms. wide.

April 27

CBC News reported that "the Manitoba flood has submerged twice as much land as previously thought; 1.680 square kilometers under water, with the crest still moving through southern parts of the province."

2011

April 8

State of emergency in the RM of St. Andrews…50 homes were evacuated in the Netley Creek area.

April 9

The province raised the gates on the Winnipeg floodway at 9 a.m.

April 10

The Red River crested at Fargo, reaching a peak of 38.75 feet, lower than had been anticipated.

First flood-related death reported. A Niverville man, 61 year old Raymond Stott, drowned when his car went under water on a flooded section of Alarie Road in the RM of DeSaliberry, about 50 kms south of Winnipeg.

City of Winnipeg calls for 900 sandbaggers to shore up dikes and protect homes within the city.

Premier Greg Selinger promised St. Andrews RM will have permanent flood protection in two years, and possibly as early as next spring. He said the local authorities will tell the government what kind of protection each location needs.

Second flood-related death reported. RCMP said a 35-year old man from Lac du Bonnet died after his vehicle wound up in a water-filled ditch.

April 12

State of emergency declared in Riverton as ice jams threatened a bridge at Provincial Road 329. Ice took out part of the walking bridge, a landmark in the town.

State of emergency declared at Peguis First Nation as the river rose about a metre in a few hours. Hundreds of homes are threatened, and water has reached the highway, the only access to Peguis.

April 13

Brandon declared a state of emergency because of rising water in a south end pond. The declaration allows civic workers onto the property to drain the pond into nearby bushland, away from any residential area.

April 14

Flood crests in Grand Forks at 49.67', making it the third worst flood in their history.

April 15

The Manitoba government promised to pump $1.5 million into flood fighting efforts at Peguis First Nation.

April 18

States of emergency declared in the Rural Municipalities of Headingley, St. Francis Xavier and Cartier because of ice jams on the Assiniboine River.

April 24

The remaining 600 residents of Roseau River First nation are expected to be evacuated today and tomorrow, as water continues to rise around the community, threatening to close off access to the community.

Emerson had its crest. Official measurements said it was a foot under 2009 levels.

April 27

Manitoba Water Stewardship announced that the flood peak will be lower than 2009 levels at all points along the Red.

April 29

The province says a winter snowstorm and high winds forcasted for the weekend could threaten Manitoba's flood defences. Winds gusting at 40-70 kph could cause ice pile-ups on some of the province's lakes, from Oak Lake and Pelican Lake near Brandon to Lake Winnipeg. The storm is also expected to delay the crest of the Red and Assiniboine till May 4.

May 1

A winter storm over the weekend dropped about 25 cm of snow in the Parklands region, with up to 50 cm in higher elevation areas. But despite high winds and earlier rain, community ring dikes throughout the Red River Valley held, with only minor erosion.

May 4

Both the Red River and the Assiniboine reached crest in Winnipeg. The Red topped out at 19.6' above James…that's down considerably from original predictions ranging from a low of 20-22 feet to a high of greater than '97 levels, which were at 24.5' above James.

4 First Nations communities on Lake Manitoba are threatened by high water…people are busy building emergency dikes and pumping water from fields and crawl spaces; they say the amount of water is unprecedented. 40 homes at the Pinaymootang First Nation are at risk of flooding. Officials warn it could get worse because of the Portage Diversion re-directing water from the flooding Assiniboine into Lake Manitoba.

May 6

Brandon and other centres along the Assiniboine received what the mayor of Brandon called “a nasty surprise. It was discovered that a faulty guage along the river system in Saskatchewan had inaccurately measured the level of water. The province now says the river will peak a foot higher than expected.

May 8

The city of Brandon declared a state of local emergency today, at an emergency meeting called this morning. The declaration allows the police to remove sightseers who are impeding flood-fighters' efforts to raise earth dikes as the Assiniboine continues to rise.

The federal government is deploying several hundred soldiers to Manitoba to help build and reinforce dikes along the Assiniboine, especially between Portage la Prairie and Headingly, over the next three days.

May 9

The province declared a state of emergency for all communities from Portage la Prairie east to Headingly

The province announced it plans to divert water from the Assiniboine into the LaSalle River watershed to avoid massive flooding that would cover 500 square kms of southern Manitoba. It says without intervention, the Assiniboine will spill its banks at a rate of 15,000 cubic feet per second, in a spill that would threaten a dozen communities. Even with a new diversion southeast of Portage, the spill is still expected to affect 150 homes and 225 sq kms of land

May 10

Provincial officials say flooding west of Winnipeg is unprecedented and worse than what covered southern Manitoba in the 1997 flood. The province has asked the federal government for another 300 soldiers to help protect properties south of the Red River, where it plans to do a controlled breach of the dike to release water from the swollen Assiniboine onto open land south of Portage. About 150 properties are at risk of being flooded as a result of the breach.

To prevent a potentially disastrous uncontrolled breach of the dike, officials will cut a 65 metre hole in the road (at a point known as the "Hoop and Holler Bend") to allow the Assiniboine to spill into the Elm River and from there into the LaSalle.

The provincial government announced it will establish a special relief program for families and farms hit by flooding

The provincial agriculture minister declared a livestock state of emergency today, urging farmers to help one another out in getting livestock from flooded or about-to-be flooded areas to higher ground. Stan Struthers says his department will identify Crown lands that can be used for agricultural purposes…to house livestock and store machinery…until the crisis is over.

May 12

After a day of frantic sandbagging in the RM of Portage and communities all along the Assiniboine to Headingly, in preparation for the province's "controlled breach" of the dike near Portage, Emergency Measures minister Steve Ashton announced that the breach will not happen till early Saturday, and will release a much lower volume of water than earlier planned.

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