WINNIPEG -- With the flood threat dropping across much of southern Manitoba Friday, the military began to pull out of the region and government officials started tallying up the damage from a week of surging water.
Repairs to roads and bridges in the western part of the province, where the Assiniboine River rose first, will cost an estimated $200 million, the provincial government said.
Another $60 million in farm aid will be needed to compensate about 3,840 square kilometres that cannot be seeded this year due to flooding. More money is expected for livestock producers.
Premier Greg Selinger thanked the more than 500 military and reserve members who were deployed after he declared a state of emergency a week ago. They set up hundreds of thousands of sandbags, shored up dikes and monitored riverbanks and dikes for leaks.
"To get those people here ... with the equipment and skills and the training that they brought to the table has made a gigantic difference."
With the Assiniboine falling in most areas, most of the military personnel were headed back to their bases Friday. A small number were to remain behind in case an emergency arose and to help with aerial surveillance of the river.
The Assiniboine rose suddenly last week due to heavy rainfall upstream in Saskatchewan that fell on ground that was already saturated. As the days went by, the river crested in various communities very close to the tops of dikes and riverbanks. More than 700 people were evacuated -- the vast majority as a precaution due to concerns their road access might be washed out.
There were still concerns Friday about a second crest in Brandon. The Assiniboine had risen to roughly the same level Friday that it did in 2011, when residents in low-lying areas were evacuated. This time, however, the province's second-largest city has an improved dike system that was expected to keep back the water throughout the weekend.
