CAF Domestic Disaster Relief Ops 2008 - 2017 [Merged]

[57Chevy]

                                              Shared with provisions of The Copyright Act

2,000 residents leaving homes in Brandon, Man.
Workers look to ease flood risk
Winnipeg Free Press and Brandon SunMay 10, 2011
http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/world/residents+leaving+homes+Brandon/4757889/story.html#ixzz1LyDELmhq

BRANDON, Man. — As many as 2,000 residents in Brandon are expected to be out of their homes by the end of Tuesday, part of mass evacuation orders resulting from rising flood waters that have prompted officials to declare state of emergency in Manitoba.

City officials went door-to-door Monday issuing the first wave of evacuation notices to residents in Brandon, about 200 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

The evacuations come as provincial officials prepare to take an unprecedented step to avoid damage to more homes.

Workers are expected to punch a hole in a dike along the south side of the Assiniboine River east of Portage la Prairie and risk flooding 150 homes rather than taking the chance an uncontrolled flood will swamp many more.

An uncontrolled spill of the Assiniboine River at Portage la Prairie, halfway between Winnipeg and Brandon, could send a rush of water into the La Salle River, flooding 500 square kilometres of southern Manitoba and as many as 850 homes in neighbouring communities.

The dike breach will be made as early as Wednesday. The province has yet to determine how it will make the cut.

"The worst that can happen is an uncontrolled breach of the dike, because you can lose control of the water and where it goes," Premier Greg Selinger said.

The 150 homeowners at risk of flooding were to be notified almost immediately by their municipalities that they had to leave. The province said it will do all it can to protect their residences. Homeowners will qualify for compensation if their houses are damaged.

The Manitoba government has declared a provincial state of emergency to deal with the imminent flood threat for the city of Portage la Prairie and the Rural Municipalities of Portage, Woodlands, Rosser, St. Francois Xavier, Headingley, Cartier, Macdonald and Grey.

Winnipeg is not believed to be in any danger.

But the diversion from the Assiniboine will hit the region around Lake Manitoba hard, a community meeting heard the community of Vogar, 200 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, where officials told farmers that they need to get ready to evacuate 100,000 cattle and other farm animals in the next one or two weeks.

Manitoba Water Stewardship projects the Assiniboine's crest could arrive in Brandon as early as Tuesday or as late as Thursday.

The city received good news when Monday's anticipated heavy rains held off.

 

[57Chevy]

                            From the Winnipeg Free Press and shared with provisions of The Copyright Act

REPLAY: Manitoba thanks military (Video at link)
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Manit-122335359.html
Staff Writer 20 May

In front of a stand of flags and sandbags, Manitoba's political honchos offered their thanks to the Canadian military for their flood-fighting efforts.

"Without the additional support we had from the troops, its quite likely that we would have seen a good chunk of southern Manitoba underwater," Premier Greg Selinger said at a ceremony behind the legislature Friday afternoon.

Premier Greg Selinger as well as Opposition leader Hugh McFadyen and Liberal leader Jon Gerrard offered their thanks. Brig.-Gen. Paul Wynnyk accepted Manitobans' heartfelt thanks on behalf of the military.

About 1700 troops and seven aircraft were deployed to the province earlier this month, as water levels along the Assiniboine River rose to unprecedented levels.

Selinger called Prime Minister Stephen Harper on May 8 to request assistance. The troops were deployed within 24 hours, he said.

The premier said that troop levels will begin to be reduced now that the worst of the flooding has passed, although many soldiers will remain to sandbag and shore up dikes, including about 100 working today in the R.M. Of St. Laurent.

Brig.-Gen. Paul Wynnyk, the commanding officer of Joint Task Force West, praised the province for its efforts and joked that troops had been well-treated during their stay.

"Wherever they went they were warmly received, warmly greeted and quite frankly overfed," he quipped.


:yellow:

 

[mariomike]

That is great news. 

 

[REDinstaller]

I just returned from the Portage Floods, my troops did their best and our Sqn placed Aqua berms around 132 houses. 

 

[Sig_Des]

I just returned from the Portage Floods, my troops did their best and our Sqn placed Aqua berms around 132 houses. 

You didn't break my Bison, did you?

 

[REDinstaller]

Did it ever really work?

 

[PuckChaser]

I don't think any Bison ever really works.

 

[REDinstaller]

His especially so. Its all in the crew.

 

[Sig_Des]

Pfft, that's the only that ever seems to work.

 

[REDinstaller]

Well i can assure you the chairs are firmly anchored.  >

 

[mariomike]

News Release - Manitoba:
“Manitobans will never forget the unwavering support of the Canadian Forces during this unprecedented natural disaster. Without hesitation, the Canadian Forces were here for us when we needed them and with their help we were able to avoid catastrophe on the Assiniboine River.  Although the flood fight is not over yet, particularly on Lake Manitoba, military assistance has helped us get through the worst.  On behalf of all Manitobans, I extend a sincere and heartfelt thank you to the women and men in uniform serving at home and abroad.”:
http://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=11550

 

[old medic]

Canadian troops sent to Manitoba for flood relief
By Matthew Fisher
02 July 2011
http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/07/02/canadian-troops-sent-to-manitoba-for-flood-relief/

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — The Canadian Army is immediately deploying 200 soldiers from Shilo, Man., to help with flood relief efforts in the town of Souris, Man., and the Souris River Valley, Defence Minister Peter Mackay announced Saturday in Kandahar.

The troops were being sent “to deal with rising water in that community,” MacKay said after visiting for the last time with Canadian combat troops whose mission ends this week. “They will assist with sandbagging and flood control.”

About 300,000 sandbags are being made to try to hold back the surging waters of the Souris River. The river is expected to crest on July 5.

Describing the deployment to the Souris River Valley as an “initial” contribution, the decision had been made after discussions with Manitoba’s emergency measures minister, Steve Ashton, MacKay said.

The Canadian Forces base at Shilo is home to 2 Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Regiment and 1 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Regiment. The base is 35 kilometres southeast of Brandon, Man. Many of the troops at Shilo have served multiple tours in Afghanistan.

Canadian troops helped in May and June to deal with floods around Portage La Prairie, Man., as well as in Saskatchewan and Quebec.

 

[a_majoor]

The cause of the floods may have more to do with political shenanigans in the United States. After all, the system of dams and flood control is designed to deal with these situations. When it is deliberately compromised, then the downstream consequences are severe. While this article specifically deals with the Missouri River, how much of this thinking has influenced the control of the Red River on the American side?

http://www.americanthinker.com/2011/06/the_purposeful_flooding_of_americas_heartland.html

The Purposeful Flooding of America's Heartland
By Joe Herring

The Missouri River basin encompasses a vast region in the central and west-central portion of our country.  This river, our nation's longest, collects the melt from Rocky Mountain snowpack and the runoff from our continents' upper plains before joining the Mississippi river above St. Louis some 2,300 miles later.  It is a mighty river, and dangerous.

Some sixty years ago, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began the process of taming the Missouri by constructing a series of six dams.  The idea was simple: massive dams at the top moderating flow to the smaller dams below, generating electricity while providing desperately needed control of the river's devastating floods.

The stable flow of water allowed for the construction of the concrete and earthen levees that protect more than 10 million people who reside and work within the river's reach.  It allowed millions of acres of floodplain to become useful for farming and development.  In fact, these uses were encouraged by our government, which took credit for the resulting economic boom.  By nearly all measures, the project was a great success.

But after about thirty years of operation, as the environmentalist movement gained strength throughout the seventies and eighties, the Corps received a great deal of pressure to include some specific environmental concerns into their MWCM (Master Water Control Manual, the "bible" for the operation of the dam system).  Preservation of habitat for at-risk bird and fish populations soon became a hot issue among the burgeoning environmental lobby.  The pressure to satisfy the demands of these groups grew exponentially as politicians eagerly traded their common sense for "green" political support.

Things turned absurd from there.  An idea to restore the nation's rivers to a natural (pre-dam) state swept through the environmental movement and their allies.  Adherents enlisted the aid of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), asking for an updated "Biological Opinion" from the FWS that would make ecosystem restoration an "authorized purpose" of the dam system.  The Clinton administration threw its support behind the change, officially shifting the priorities of the Missouri River dam system from flood control, facilitation of commercial traffic, and recreation to habitat restoration, wetlands preservation, and culturally sensitive and sustainable biodiversity.

Congress created a committee to advise the Corps on how best to balance these competing priorities.  The Missouri River Recovery and Implementation Committee has seventy members.  Only four represent interests other than environmentalism.  The recommendations of the committee, as one might expect, have been somewhat less than evenhanded.

The Corps began to utilize the dam system to mimic the previous flow cycles of the original river, holding back large amounts of water upstream during the winter and early spring in order to release them rapidly as a "spring pulse."  The water flows would then be restricted to facilitate a summer drawdown of stream levels.  This new policy was highly disruptive to barge traffic and caused frequent localized flooding, but a multi-year drought masked the full impact of the dangerous risks the Corps was taking.

This year, despite more than double the usual amount of mountain and high plains snowpack (and the ever-present risk of strong spring storms), the true believers in the Corps have persisted in following the revised MWCM, recklessly endangering millions of residents downstream.

Missouri Senator Roy Blunt agrees, calling the management plan "flawed" and "poorly thought out."  Sen. Blunt characterized the current flooding as "entirely preventable" and told reporters that he intends to force changes to the plan.

Perhaps tellingly, not everyone feels the same apprehension toward the imminent disaster.

Greg Pavelka, a wildlife biologist with the Corps of Engineers in Yankton, SD, told the Seattle Times that this event will leave the river in a "much more natural state than it has seen in decades," describing the epic flooding as a "prolonged headache for small towns and farmers along its path, but a boon for endangered species."  He went on to say, "The former function of the river is being restored in this one-year event. In the short term, it could be detrimental, but in the long term it could be very beneficial."

At the time of this writing, the Corps is scrambling for political cover, repeatedly denying that it had any advance warning of the potential for this catastrophe.  The official word is that everything was just fine until unexpectedly heavy spring rains pushed the system past the tipping point.

On February 3, 2011, a series of e-mails from Ft. Pierre SD Director of Public Works Brad Lawrence sounded the alarm loud and clear.  In correspondence to the headquarters of the American Water Works Association in Washington, D.C., Lawrence warned that "the Corps of Engineers has failed thus far to evacuate enough water from the main stem reservoirs to meet normal runoff conditions. This year's runoff will be anything but normal."

In the same e-mail, he describes the consequences of the Corps failure to act as a "flood of biblical proportions."  His e-mails were forwarded from Washington, D.C. to state emergency response coordinators nationwide.  The Corps headquarters in Omaha, NE which is responsible for the Missouri river system, claims they heard no such warning from Lawrence or anyone else.  Considering the wide distribution of this correspondence, and the likely reactions from officials in endangered states, their denials strain credulity.

Whether warned or not, the fact remains that had the Corps been true to its original mission of flood control, the dams would not have been full in preparation for a "spring pulse."  The dams could further have easily handled the additional runoff without the need to inundate a sizeable chunk of nine states.  The Corps admits in the MWCM that they deliberately embrace this risk each year in order to maximize their re-ordered priorities.

MWCM (Sec 7-07.2.6):

    Releases at higher-than-normal rates early in the season that cannot be supported by runoff forecasting techniques is inconsistent with all System purposes other than flood control. All of the other authorized purposes depend upon the accumulation of water in the System rather than the availability of vacant storage space. [Emphasis added.]

Perhaps the environmentalists of the Corps grew tired of waiting decades to realize their dream of a "restored Missouri River."  Perhaps these elements heard the warnings and saw in them an opportunity to force an immediate re-naturalization of the river via epic flood.  At present, that is impossible to know, but to needlessly imperil the property, businesses, and lives of millions of people constitutes criminal negligence.  Given the statements of Corps personnel, and the clear evidence of their mismanagement, the possibility that there is specific intent behind their failure to act must be investigated without delay.

In recent decades, many universities have steeped their Natural Sciences curriculum in the green tea of earth-activism, producing radically eco-centric graduates who naturally seek positions with the government agencies where they can best implement their theories.  Today, many of these men and women have risen high in their fields, hiring fellow travelers to fill subordinate positions and creating a powerful echo chamber of radical environmentalist theory.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a victim/tool of the above-described process.  The horrifying consequence is water rushing from the dams on the Missouri twice as fast as the highest previous releases on record.  Floodgates that have not been opened in more than fifty years are in full operation, discharging water at a rate of 150,000 cubic feet per second toward millions of Americans downstream.

This is a mind-boggling rate of release.  Consider that 150,000 cubic feet of water would fill a football field instantly to a depth of four feet.  This amount of water, being released every second, will continue unabated for the next several months.  The levees that protect the cities and towns downstream were constructed to handle the flow rates promised at the time of the dam's construction.  None of these levees have ever been tested at these levels, yet they must hold back millions of acre-feet of floodwater for the entire summer without failing.  In the flooding of 1993, more than a thousand levees failed.  This year's event will be many orders of magnitude greater.

There are many well-publicized examples of absurd obeisance to the demands of radical environmentalists resulting in great economic harm.  The Great Missouri River Flood of 2011 is shaping up to be another -- only this time, the price will likely be paid in lives lost as well as treasure.  Ayn Rand said, "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality."

We need to begin the investigations immediately.  It seems that it is sanity, and not the river, that needs to be restored.

The author writes from Omaha, NE and may be reached at readmorejoe@gmail.com.

 

[57Chevy]

Great article Thucydides.
Their theory ( I think) was based on a stable yearly flow of water. 
I don't think they were expecting to break all the earlier records of the "Big Muddy" flow.
There is a lot more water to deal with. Checking out the
release of water by dam chart from wikipedia will give an idea of the problem.
( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Missouri_River_floods )

Regular updates:
Missouri River Flooding 2011 on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Missouri-River-Flooding-2011/158643600870061

Photo: Map of the Missouri River and its tributaries in North America

 

[lea]

"Soldiers from CFB Shilo were called out Saturday to reinforce flood defences in Souris."

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Souris-rises-38-metres-overnight-124939164.html

.

 

[eurowing]

1976 all over again.

 

[57Chevy]

                                          Shared with provisions of The Copyright Act


Manitoba flood-fighting mishap injures 6
Melissa Martin, Winnipeg Free PressJuly 4, 2011
http://www.globalwinnipeg.com/world/Manitoba+flood+fighting+mishap+injures/5047163/story.html#ixzz1RCMbDdpj

SOURIS, Man. — Six people, including five soldiers, were rushed to hospital from the heart of Manitoba's flood fight on Monday afternoon.


Around 3:30 p.m., soldiers and civilian volunteers in Souris, Man. were unloading sandbags from a dump truck when a hydraulic line blew, spraying fluid over the workers. Air and ground ambulances rushed five soldiers from CFB Shilo and one Souris volunteer to hospital in Brandon, Man.


A spokesman for the military said the extent of their injuries had not been confirmed.

article continues...

 

[PPCLI Guy]

All 5 soldiers have already returned to duty.

Mission is now terminated....for now

 

[Old Sweat]

What about along the Assiniboine in a few days? The Souris runs into it south of Shilo, for those whose geography of SW Manitoba is a bit rusty.

 

[GAP]

The Assiniboine has been high since breakup, and has hardly gone down at all....this surge from the Souris River is going to keep it high a lot longer.......way into the fall....

The Portage Diversion bypasses a bunch into Lake Manitoba (that's a disaster all by itself), but the James Street level (on the Red River, just after the Assiniboine joins the Red in downtown Winnipeg) is low enough that the Red River will take the increase easily......