WINNIPEG - Canadian troops have been called in to help Manitoba deal with a sudden surge on the Assiniboine River as more rain is expected in the next few days.
Premier Greg Selinger said the federal government has agreed to send several hundred soldiers to provide support in places where access is difficult.
Selinger told a news conference Sunday that dikes need to be raised or strengthened in an area along the Assiniboine River that stretches from Portage la Prairie to the Headingly, which is just west of Winnipeg.
"Last weekend's storms and the additional rain forecast in the next two to four days will result in unprecedented flows of water on the Assiniboine River," Selinger said.
"We want to ensure that those dikes are reinforced as much as possible. If anything breaches we'll have a crew of trained personnel -- military personnel -- that can move very quickly."
Selinger said the soldiers, most of whom are already in the province stationed at Canadian Forces Base Shilo or reservists, will have about three days to do their job. Forecasters said Winnipeg is not considered at risk.
Flooding across Manitoba this year has swamped farmland and closed hundreds of roads.
In Brandon, Man., which is further upstream from where the soldiers will be working, the city has declared a state of emergency after the Assiniboine rose more than 60 centimetres between Friday and Sunday.
The Assiniboine has already passed the record level in Brandon set during the flood of 1923, and dikes have been raised in the city once again.
Provincial flood forecaster Steve Topping told reporters that between 20 and 50 millimetres of rain is expected in southern Manitoba over the next few days. He said that since the ground is already soaked, it will run directly into already-swollen creeks and rivers.
Canadian troops were also sent into Quebec last week after heavy flooding in that province forced thousands of residents from their homes.
Nearly 800 Canadian soldiers are now working on the relief operation and they have laid down nearly 50,000 sand bags.
Flood waters in Quebec, however, continue to decline Sunday and authorities expect levels to drop about four centimetres a day in the coming week if the weather co-operates.
Roughly 3,000 homes were flooded and Quebec provincial police are surveying the damage to make sure homes are safe.
In Manitoba, Selinger said the military has already been involved as part of this spring's flood planning.
The province quickly updated its flood forecast for the Assiniboine late last week when it said it found out it was receiving inaccurate flow data from a malfunctioning gage on the Qu'Appelle River in Saskatchewan, a tributary of the Assiniboine.
Topping, however, downplayed the significance of the underestimated flow from data.
"The real issue here is the increase in forecast due to the weather we got, the snowfall in the Brandon area, the precipitation last week," he said.
"The real issue is the future weather."
