River overflows its banks

Ken Johnston
Editor

Concerns rose Tuesday when they awoke to find water in many of their basements and a rapidly rising Rainy River.

The situation became increasingly worse as the day wore on. About two inches of rain fell throughout the day and more was forecasted for Wednesday. That coupled with more than an inch on Sunday and more on Monday left the Rainy River rising to heights the town has not seen since 1997.

Town Administrator and Acting Mayor Larry Armstrong were scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon to discuss the situation. In the spring of 1997 the Mayor of the day, Gord Armstrong, ran a command post from the town hall and hundreds of people sandbagged to protect the town. At that time the water came right up to the bottom of River Avenue West and later that spring Grand Forks and Winnipeg both experienced severe flooding as the Red River system overflowed its banks.

Around 6 p.m. Tuesday evening the call went out for volunteers to help sandbag as two local homes were flooded and it became clear that water levels will continue to rise rapidly over the next few days. Volunteers are being asked to report to the Town Garage on the corner of Highway 11 and 6th St. Sandbags will be filled indoors out of the rain and deployed as needed. For more information or to offer help people can call the Town of Rainy River at 852-3978. Tune into local radio stations for updates.

Rick Walden, Executive Engineer for the Lake of the Woods Water Control Board (LWCB) said that things were just starting to level off before the weekend. He was referring to the water levels on Rainy Lake, Rainy River and Lake of the Woods noting that flow levels were starting to fall off, but the new rain in the area over the weekend threw that out the window.

Town of Rainy River workers were at work as early as 6 a.m. dealing with everything from docks floating away from the park and phone calls from people reporting basements flooding. The town crew was busy answering alarm bells at the water treatment plant as well as keeping an eye on the rising river levels. Early in the morning they had to get in a boat and chase after two strings of docks that Mother Nature had released from the park. Both were found and anchored on the U.S. side of the river to be retrieved when better weather presents itself.

Walden said that he received a phone call from a resident in Rainy River who was concerned with rising water levels at their river-front property. Walden said that the gates are all open at Fort Frances/International Falls. There are about 927 m3/second flowing through the dam there. Meanwhile the dam at Kenora is just about wide open allowing 1,200 m3/second through. It could handle another 100m3 before being maxed out. However, Walden said, "We are trying to balance all the areas on the system." The Winnipeg River system below the dam at Kenora is already having a tough time with flooding and the LWCB was doing its best to relieve the impact on the people there.

He noted that Namakan Lake and Lake Kabetogama are both full. They feed into Rainy Lake and hence can not handle anymore water. With everything full and now starting to flood he said they will do the best they can to manage the water levels on a day to day basis.

Not all the problems with water levels in Rainy River are attributable to rain and runoff. High winds on Lake of the Woods can whip the water levels there and that in turn backs up into the Rainy River. The LWCB gauge at Hansen's Bay rose by six inches over the weekend and that increase was from the wind. "That water has to go some place," said Walden.

Water had risen to the point where it was over the road at the west end of the park, over access ramps to the Rainy River Marina and was closing in on homes built north of the two international bridges. No sand bagging had taken place by Noon Tuesday, but one town official did not rule it out at that time.

Walden said that in his opinion the situation would not have been any different had the old rule curves been in effect. They were recently changed to allow for a slower draw down of Rainy and Namakan Lakes to allow for better fish spawning grounds in the spring. The new curves then see the water let out in mid summer. Previously Rainy and Namakan were drawn down more rapidly in early spring. However Walden said that, "In extreme conditions rule curves do not make much of a difference, no matter where they are."

Walden said that everything now depends on the weather. He noted that outflows from the Little and Big Fork Rivers had dropped last week and he is hopeful that there will not be too much more rain.

It rained through most of the day Tuesday and more rain was forecasted for Wednesday and Thursday.