Welcome

2011 has been a very demanding and challenging year for emergency managers in Manitoba.  The Red River experienced the 6th largest flood on record, the Assiniboine River experienced a 1 in 300 year flood event (the largest on record), The Souris River and the Saskatchewan River experienced record level flooding, and record water levels were recorded on Lake Manitoba, Lake Winnipeg, Lake St. Martin, Dauphin Lake, Lake Winnipegosis, and Lake of the Prairies.

An emergency event of this magnitude and scale has never occurred before in our Province’s history, although all the indicators that it could happen were evident.

It was late in 2010 that the provincial government first identified the potential for extreme flooding in Manitoba.  By January 24, 2011, when Manitoba Water Stewardship released the first spring flood outlook, the flood potential was very high for much of the Province including the Red, Souris, Pembina, Assiniboine, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan and Fisher Rivers, as well as in the Interlake region, due to high river flows, very high soil-moisture conditions at freeze-up, above normal snow-water content in the snow pack, and a cool and wet spring.

At that time, localized flooding was certainly expected in most of central and southern Manitoba, but what we experienced goes far beyond what anyone could have predicted.

Based on these initial forecasts, departments began extensive preparations in early 2011 with many approved projects to mitigate the impacts of spring flooding and enhance Manitoba’s flood fighting capacity.  This proved to be a wise investment.

The victories in this flood were hard won.  I want to commend everyone who contributed to the fight, including a big thank you for the assistance of military forces brought in to assist the Province. 

The Flood of 2011 was unprecedented, but with winter fast approaching, lake levels, particularly in Manitoba’s largest lakes, remain high. That is why emergency managers in Manitoba are once again closely watching the flood forecast and are actively preparing for the potential of even more flooding this upcoming spring. To ensure we remain prepared, Manitoba EMO continues to work diligently and closely with all provincial and municipal officials to update and test emergency plans to achieve an even greater degree of readiness.  We must never stop learning from past emergencies and improving our response capabilities.

To that end, municipal governments are vital partners in emergency management, and the cooperation, experience and leadership of these partners was demonstrated time and time again over this year to deal with this historic event that we faced together.

Every municipality in Manitoba has a comprehensive emergency plan in place.  Each emergency plan takes into account the requirements at all phases of an emergency – beginning with steps to limit or eliminate the threat of harm, to the requirements for evacuations and response activities, to the programs required for a complete recovery afterward.   These plans form the base of emergency management capacity in the Province.

This certainly is all important, but even more valuable to those of us in the field of emergency management is the need for individuals to recognize their role in emergency preparedness and to be ready for the unexpected. The best response to an emergency or a disaster of any scale begins with you, the prepared individual. You’ll find a wealth of information on our website about what you can do to prepare for floods and other emergencies. 

2011 delivered many emergencies, both locally and internationally, that all show the importance of a comprehensive approach to emergency management, including a system that ensures the effective coordination of partners in government, the private sector, and non-governmental agencies. Manitoba EMO works directly with a wide range of governmental and non-governmental organizations to ensure all necessary agencies are coordinated and effective to help people and communities in need. 

Manitoba’s emergency management team has demonstrated its ability to work co-operatively and successfully on many occasions in the past, and will continue to do so into the future.

Chuck Sanderson
Executive Director
Manitoba EMO

November 2011