Unprecedented flooding in southeastern Saskatchewan has prompted evacuation orders for 10,000 people south of the border, as the Souris River carries a deluge of water towards North Dakota.
Rushing water is expected to pour over dikes protecting Minot, North Dakota within the hour, warned the city's mayor Curt Zimbelman late Wednesday morning.
The spring flood season may have officially ended on Tuesday, but that's brought little change to the flooding that has wracked the region for months.
The latest round began Friday, when heavy rains proved too much for already-swollen rivers and reservoirs.
A spokesperson for the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority said a confluence of factors have led to the present "unprecedented" situation.
The spring started with a heavy snow-melt runoff, Dale Hjertaas said in an interview from Regina on Tuesday, noting that alone would be unremarkable for the province.
"Since then it's been raining repeatedly, so the ground has just kept getting wetter and wetter," he told CTV's Canada AM, explaining that the capacity of the river system, wetlands and reservoirs to hold any more water "is pretty much gone."
That meant the five days of rainfall that started last Friday not only flooded communities along the swollen Souris River, but on higher, flatter ground as well.
"It's the kind of flood you would see once every 500 years, statistically," Hjertaas said.
As a result, two-dozen communities were in a state of emergency across Sakatchewan on Tuesday, with approximately 800 people forced from their homes.
The number of evacuees is far higher downriver, however, where officials have ordered a quarter of the population of Minot to be out of their homes by 6 p.m. Wednesday evening.
The approximately 11,000 people have been told to leave because water from the Souris River, which loops down from Saskatchewan through North Dakota before snaking north into Manitoba where it joins the Assiniboine, is expected to breach levees in Minot within two days.
There's no waiting in Estevan, Saksatchewan, though, as residents there have already seen the effects of the nearly 300 millimetres of rain that's fallen since the beginning of May.
"Every time you look out and it's raining, it makes you a little bit sick," Estevan Mayor Gary St. Onge told The Canadian Press.
But Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall hopes to muster some relief for that and other affected communities after pressing Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the subject of disaster aid and flood protection on Tuesday.
Wall told reporters he expressly raised the question of funding for flood damage caused by intentional breaches of roads, dikes or dams.
"I was able to raise that with the prime minister and say, well, clearly these RMs wouldn't be cutting the roads if there weren't a flood. The flood's the cause, the disaster's the cause," Wall said.
"And he said, well, you know we'll have a look at that. He's already committed to fund permanent works ... to mitigate against further damage."
The province put up $22 million for flood prevention programs in February, and has added another $30 million since. The premier said Tuesday that figure could approach $100 million.
With files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press
