Flood danger passes, state of emergency lifted

Ken Johnston
Editor

Friday June 14, 2002 - The Town of Rainy River lifted its State of Emergency declaration this morning.
Despite almost all the flood gates being opened at Fort Frances, the water levels at the town of Rainy River have subsided by several inches vertically since Wednesday. "Since 10:30 p.m. Thursday to 8:30 a.m. (Friday) the river has dropped by two inches," said RR Town Foreman Bob Jenson. "Since Wednesday at 10:30 p.m. it has dropped 14 inches."
The flood gates were opened in stages on Thursday to accommodate the situation in Rainy River and make the impact of the added inflow gradual. At the same time tributaries to the Rainy River began to subside. In effect by the time 6 of the 8 flood gates were opened the water levels at Rainy River saw no increase and in fact continued to recede.
On the other end of the water system, Lake of the Woods‚ outflows were increased dramatically on Thursday. On Monday the outflows at the Norman Dam near Kenora were 200 cubic metres per second. That was increased to the maximum outflow possible, 1,200 cubic metres per second. Lake of the Woods has risen 23 inches since the weekend as runoff from torrential rains in the water shed arrives there. Sandbagging ended yesterday afternoon and the town was put in a wait and see mode.
Town Clerk Deb Bowman said that, "There is definitely something to smile about today." Mayor Gord Prost said that while the town is gathering all the costs associated with fortifying the community and estimates of the damage to the community, especially the sewer system, they will also begin looking at what to do with the dike built along the south side of Rainy River in the past few days.
Many citizens including those who do not live in the flood plain have said they think it should be made permanent so that the community does not have to rally to defend itself like it did this week for the third time in five years.
The weather for the weekend is supposed to be dry and sunny and town officials are hoping that trend continues well into next week to allow the river levels to subside.