'The polar opposite': What flood season has been like for one Manitoba community

The RM of Ritchot is experiencing a completely different flood season this year compared to what it saw in 2022 when residents were forced to evacuate and a state of local emergency was declared.

“It’s the polar opposite this year. We’re looking at absolutely no flood,” said Chris Ewen, Mayor of Ritchot, in an interview with CTV Morning Live on Wednesday.

“We do see a little bit of things going on in Ritchot, but that’s very common annually.”

Last year, more than 200 homes in the rural municipality were issued evacuation notices due to the rising waters, but this year there haven’t been any evacuations.

“We are very low in Ritchot. We’re not looking at major flooding, but… you will see some lower roads, so we do have to maintain and make sure that those roads are kept safe,” Ewen said.

Despite this year’s mild flood conditions, the RM is always prepared for the potential of a major flood. Ewen said that every year they start preparing for flood season around the end of February and work to identify what supplies and volunteers will be needed.

“We start looking at what do we need to get for sandbags. What do we need to get for road closure supplies, is there going to be barricades, things like that,” he said.

“Who’s going to get involved, how many volunteers do we need? What does public works need to start doing for maybe drainage issues or cleaning out some drainage or ditches? There are a lot of steps involved.”

IMPACTS OF THE 2022 FLOOD

Ewen said that Ritchot sustained $2 million in damages from the 2022 flood. These costs include infrastructure damage, debris cleanup, drainage issues, and overland flooding on farms.

“It was literally everywhere. We’re still seeing some of that work that needs to be done,” Ewen said.

“We have about 25 to 35 per cent of the damage that needs to be cleaned up and that’s really just isolated to field work.”

One farmer who felt the impact of last year’s flood is Jim Shapiro of Poco-Razz Farm.

He said last year he had to evacuate his horses due to the flooding risks, and had to cancel last year’s growing season for his U-Pick garden.

“We couldn’t put the garden in last year because the ground was so wet that nothing would grow,” Shapiro said.

To help prevent future impacts of flooding, Ewen said the province is raising the levels of the dikes throughout the Red River region.

“That’s about a foot higher around the community, specifically St. Adolphe, Ste. Agathe, that they’re doing,” he said.

“It will just bring more safety and more precautionary measures to the community.”

- With files from CTV’s Ainsley McPhail and Mason DePatie.