Manitoba Flooding Q

[sheilab]

Since Manitoba has suffered flooding consistently over the last century - why don't people build a dike/earthen berm around their house to protect their house from the flooding? Yes you need to get out of the property but the driveways could easily be sandbagged when needed.

[fakishan]

I would imagine such a thing would look quite unappealing on the property, and an general inconvenience to pass around.

It also wouldn't be very effective.

[sheilab]

I guess a house full of water every few years is much more appealing?

[spookie149]

Since Manitoba has suffered flooding consistently over the last century - why don't people build a dike/earthen berm around their house to protect their house from the flooding? Yes you need to get out of the property but the driveways could easily be sandbagged when needed.

You do not realize the vastness of the flooding. People are sandbagging. 1000's of sandbags. But the water may still crest. You can't back out of your driveway. The whole neighbourhood floods. The picture below was taken this week. The orange tubes are dikes which the water has crested over.

http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/photos/2009/04/09/christie.jpg

[king_george]

In Winnipeg they have the Duff Ditch (http://archives.cbc.ca/science_technology/applied_science/clips/790/).

No get the Simpsons outta the mind here. It's a very very large spillway to control the floods in the city proper.

The floodplain is so large there is no way to protect anyone's property all the time. It's the typical problem: The flood plain is especially good agricultural land that depends on these floods to re-invigorate the soil. The floods cause extensive property damage.

Stop the floods and you run the risk of making the land less arable.

It's a tradeoff that has been going on for a long time and floodsare almost expected to happen. The floodplain is tens of thousands of square kilometers covering 3 states and one province. Flood control is impossible to implement everywhere.

[12th hour]

Since Manitoba has suffered flooding consistently over the last century - why don't people build a dike/earthen berm around their house to protect their house from the flooding? Yes you need to get out of the property but the driveways could easily be sandbagged when needed.
In the rural areas south of WPG, homeowners living near the Red River were to either build a permenant dike or raise the house as per 1997 flood levels in order to get insurance against flooding. Living inside a city/town, there are bylaws preventing you to build a permenant dike on your property or raising your yard elevation. Many smaller communities have a dike around them.

[ullyeus]

Manitoba has some of the worlds biggest and best flood prevention measures in place...it's not as simple as it seems...

[gman]

Since Manitoba has suffered flooding consistently over the last century - why don't people build a dike/earthen berm around their house to protect their house from the flooding? Yes you need to get out of the property but the driveways could easily be sandbagged when needed.


I guess a house full of water every few years is much more appealing?

Because:

1. it is not effective for a big flood.
2. it causes money.
3. how high and big your dike you want that to be? If the flood level can be 2 floor up, do you really want a dike that high?
4. The most important ... this is NOT the solution. A temporary patch work at best.