Jeremy from Land Drainage & Flood Protection
Download MP3We know our services and programs impact you, so let's talk about them. Together, we'll learn from the people behind the scenes and get to know our city a little better. From the City of Winnipeg, this is Our City, Our Podcast.
Natalie:This podcast is recorded in Treaty 1 territory, the home and traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Ininew, and Dakota peoples, and the national homeland of the Red River Metis. We acknowledge that our drinking water comes from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation in Treaty 3 territory.
Tamara:Hi, I'm Tamara. And I'm Natalie. Natalie, this episode is coming at a very fitting time in our city's history. It was actually this week back in 1950 that the dikes around the city breached and caused a very significant flood.
Natalie:And, you know, every spring in Winnipeg, there is that moment, you know, the snow begins to melt, the river start to move, and suddenly we're all again watching the water. But, know, here's something that people don't always see, and it's the thousands of decisions happening behind the scenes long before the river's crest, or even after a big heavy rain.
Tamara:Yeah, that's right. And today we're joined by Jeremy Flood Protection Branch. He's very busy. We are in the middle of flood season right now. So he's graciously agreed to come chat with us about both the visible and invisible work that keeps our city dry and why a non event is actually the result of thousands of decisions happening behind the scenes.
Tamara:Jeremy, thanks for joining us. Now you grew up here, so you must remember '97. What do you remember about that national event happening in and around Winnipeg? I mean, most people remember sandbags, news updates. Where were you at that time?
Jeremy:Yeah, I was in grade nine, so it goes back a few years. I remember as being a kid, never really interested in the news, but at that time, I was very much glued to the TV anytime there was a news update, whether it was right from the city or even when it got to the national stage. So, very interested to see how widespread the flooding got and then what people within the province and the city were doing at the time to control what's happening.
Natalie:Being glued to those TVs, that's probably an experience that so many people recognize. But what's unique is that you actually went on to make this your life's work. You know, today, you head up Winnipeg's Land Drainage and Flood Protection Branch. Can you tell us about your daily operations and your team?
Jeremy:Sure. So, of flooding, we actually we we're very much involved in both the land drainage and flood protection side of things within the city. We're kind of split down the middle where we look at operations both on one side versus the other. For land drainage, we're very much involved in development review applications for greenfield development areas. Those are kind of like new subdivision areas within the city as well as infill developments.
Jeremy:And we look at stuff for compliance with associated bylaws and provincial regulations. On the flood protection side of things, it's very much where we're involved with the flood planning and flood fighting efforts during the spring. And it's actually not just spring, it's also anytime the river comes up in the city, have to be kind of ready to respond to what's happening more so on our sewer system. But even on that side, we also look at also development application reviews for people who want to do work on their property and making sure they're complying with regulations and other associated bylaws. We're also providing flood protection advice both internally and externally to people both within the city as well as residents.
Tamara:Being a river city, I'm sure listeners today are probably expecting a lot of river talk. We'll get there. But we also want to quickly chat about the challenges that are emerging as Winnipeg expands away from the riverbanks. You mentioned new developments. It's a completely different management job when you're dealing with water on flat land, isn't it?
Jeremy:Very different. Yeah. So, managing that side of things, with land drainage, that's not managing when we get big rainfall events to happen in the city. So, a lot of these new development areas in the city, we're taking kind of grassed areas, fields, things where water can soak in and make its way out somehow. With development, there's an increase in hardtop surfaces, things like roadways, driveways, sidewalks, houses, buildings.
Jeremy:We call those impervious areas, the soil areas, grass areas, call those pervious areas.
Natalie:Sorry, so pervious, impervious. Is that really just like the sponginess of our different surfaces in the city?
Jeremy:Yeah, that's actually an interesting way to put it. On things like grasses, we're talking it actually soaking into the ground on hardtop surfaces like roadways. There's no place for it to soak. It has to drain away somewhere. So, in this context, what we're talking about is under pre development conditions where there's more grass area or other pervious areas, drainage due to runoff is generally slower.
Jeremy:We see a lot of losses in the rainfall when it runs off as there is more potential for water to soak into the ground or for it to evaporate or to be slowly drained away to things like ditches. Now, under a post development condition, so that's like a full build out of a subdivision, there's an increase in drainage due to more runoff going to the sewer system quite a bit more quickly. There's less opportunities for water to soak into the soil and the hard surfaces allow for the water to drain away very quickly. On that side of things, that's where we're working with the development industry to identify what they actually do is they're the ones on for land drainage in the city. They're the ones that are actually coming up with designs for new sewer infrastructure.
Jeremy:So, sewers, retention ponds, and we work with them during that process to make sure that what they're constructing works with our system, whether there might be something already existing or if they're tying into a new outfall to the river, we're working with them through that process as well. We're kind of in a spot where a lot of new development areas are getting further and further away from the river. So, with flat ground, flat grades, it's tricky to manage that degree of rainfall. So, it's a very involving process.
Natalie:I want to touch on retention ponds, because we have what could be maybe a shift in thinking for folks. That retention ponds aren't necessarily about the nature and the aesthetics this water body. They are actually a really active part of our sewer system.
Jeremy:Yeah, very much so. The retention ponds themselves are very much part of the sewer system itself. They're used to store that increase in runoff in the pond. So, what'll happen is the sewer pipes will be connected to the pond, water collects into the sewer through catch basins, gets right into a pond, that pond now has a water level that will rise with that response, and it'll slowly go back down. And it allows us to reduce kind of the loading into further downstream systems.
Jeremy:So, there was a new development area that's tying into existing development areas, we want to make sure we're not overloading those areas. So, sometimes those retention ponds are needed to restrict that flow and make sure that everything's kind of working cohesively. They also allow us to install kind of more smaller manageable sewer sizes. It's again because the water eventually has to make its way to the river. The further we are, from the river, kind of that's bigger those sewer pipes tend to get, especially when the grades are so flat too.
Jeremy:So this allows us to keep pipe sizes something a little bit more manageable and easier to work with.
Natalie:So pretty, but useful. Necessary.
Tamara:Necessary. So as we're recording this right now, it's mid April. Let's pull up the current river levels and we're sitting at Jeremy, do you know this before I can find it?
Jeremy:I think it's about 15.4 ish.
Tamara:15.47. Look at this. Do you know it at always all times?
Jeremy:No. No? I shouldn't say that. We're always monitoring
Tamara:it. So yes. 15.47 James Avenue. What does that mean? And and why that location, which is just just downtown here in the East Exchange?
Jeremy:Yeah. So it's kind of a central location in the city to reference water levels on on the river too. It's right downstream of both where the Assiniboine River drains into the Red River. So, like I said, it's both central, but it's also two large rivers converging. So, it gives a good sense as to it means when a flood hits a certain amount.
Jeremy:So, the datum itself is zero feet. And then what it means is it's the height that the river gets above that zero datum. That zero feet is about typical winter level. Other kind of levels around that, just for reference, about 6.5 feet, James, is the typical summer level. Typical spring floods are kind of in that 18 to 20 foot range.
Jeremy:Then something like the ninety seven flood was 24 and a half feet, James.
Tamara:For our listeners, you can find current river levels on our website, always available, updated almost to the minute. We'll put a link to that in our show notes.
Natalie:Now Winnipegger is, you know, we have maybe our own lingo. It's not specifically ours, but gosh, we're good at it. And maybe, you know, to help make sure that we are throwing around some of these words correctly, Jeremy will help us with definitions, some things that we'll continue to talk about. But something that, you know, I think a lot of people, you know, watching the river and they can use words like crest.
Jeremy:Crest is the highest level the river gets during a flood event.
Natalie:We actually also sometimes call it the peak.
Jeremy:Freeboard. Freeboard is a safety factor or buffer. We usually add it to whatever water level we're looking at. So, if it's for a planning level, we'll add that kind of freeboard to it. Sometimes even if it's not related to flooding, if it's related to something like a retention pond, we'll get a design level on those ponds, but then we also add freeboard to those.
Jeremy:It's a safety factor because it's trying to account for things that are tough to account for during a designer during this. It's to give us that sense of confidence.
Tamara:Wind and waves and things like that.
Jeremy:Things like that could potentially contribute. It could also be things like survey error. Like, there's a lot of things that could go wrong. So, this is how it kind of build in a bit of degree of
Tamara:Insurance?
Jeremy:Yeah, uncertainty to the whole process. So, in the city, you know, on the rivers, particularly, we use kind of industry standard, which is two feet, but freeboard can be kind of any number.
Natalie:Okay. One that people might recognize from the cornhole field, but we're not talking about these little ones, sandbags.
Jeremy:Sandbags are yeah, it's a bag of sand, lack of a better term. They're used for creating temporary flood protection on, usually in a lot of cases, private properties. So, it's to help build a temporary sandbag dyke that's placing them down in such a way and then putting poly wraps so that they're built to a certain height and that withstands water coming in and flooding someone's property.
Natalie:But the operation in which we put these together is something else.
Jeremy:It is, yes. I'm not directly involved with that, but I'm aware it's quite a tool. Think they call it the octopus. It's called eight arms and they're loading sand from the top and it's shooting into various bags and they're collecting them and then getting them ready.
Tamara:Ice jams.
Jeremy:Ice jams are an interesting river process. It happens when we've got ice in the river that starts to break up. Broken up ice will move its way downstream and collect against something. Usually, something like a bridge or someplace where it just hangs up. They're tricky because they cause water levels to rise very quickly.
Tamara:Can you go into a bit more detail about that? Because you said they're tricky and it can rise fast. What the factors that go into what can potentially cause an ice jam and how severe can they get?
Jeremy:Sure. And actually, if I could, I'd like to take it back a step because there's another process there. Ice itself is just a big uncertainty for us. Every year is different. The ice, when it does freeze and then when it does go to break up, will actually start off with something called an ice cover.
Jeremy:So, an ice cover itself is that when you look out and you see kind of a solid piece of ice across the river, that's an ice cover. When river flows start to rise in the city, so when there's more water coming from south of us, that ice cover acts kind of like has a lid on top of the water. It restricts the flow, meaning it makes the water level higher than if there was no ice there. And it's not by an insignificant amount. It could be like in the order of feet.
Jeremy:An ice jam now is that same ice cover. As that water level starts to come up, the ice will break up. When that broken ice moves, it can collect against, like I said, things like a bridge or certain locations. And then that ice will all collect and then it causes the water level. It kind of actually works a lot like a dam.
Jeremy:So, the water will raise really, really quickly. And then at some point in time, once there's enough water behind it and if the ice in the jam itself starts to weaken, it'll blow it out and it'll make it go downstream. So, we're looking at like what does that effect do to us and what do we have to manage around those higher water levels than if it was an open water condition and what it might need downstream because those ice surges can also cause levels to come up pretty quick for people downstream of it.
Tamara:Is there anything we can do to break up an ice jam or is it just Mother Nature and waiting for it to move?
Jeremy:For the most part, no. There's not really much we can do. Have to account for it in our planning and our flood fighting itself. So, what it will mean is we maybe we have to add additional buffer to what we're planning, what we're doing on things. So, we're constantly watching the levels and watching the ice and what's happening.
Jeremy:We monitor things like the ice thickness itself in springtime every year, we get an idea of how thick it is. We compare it to previous years, so we get an idea of what that might do. We also monitor what the condition of the ice is in the city. So, that's usual visually looking at what it looks like. We have an idea of where jams typically present themselves.
Jeremy:So, we're kind of going to those locations. But also, can see it in the river data. So, we're constantly watching this stuff all the time. If we're seeing something interesting going on, we'll kind of look and see, is there a jam happening?
Tamara:Where are those areas that you know that they tend to kind of get all
Jeremy:bunched up? It's various locations around the city. Oftentimes, we'll see jams kind of happen around that Norwood Bridge. It's the one right at on Main Street there. But there's many different locations and it's all very dynamic, but it's once again based on past practice, past knowledge of what's happened in the system.
Jeremy:It doesn't mean we don't watch everywhere. We just know kind of certain locations to watch.
Natalie:The primary dikes. I want to bring this up because they're kind of omnipresent in that they're part of the landscape that people might not even recognize they're there sometimes.
Jeremy:Yes, that's because in a lot of locations around the city, the primary dikes are not actually visible. The primary dikes were built as part of protecting during the nineteen fifty Flood. In a lot of cases, last road that kind of separates the river from the rest of the city. In a lot of cases, it's it's where there was high ground already to begin with. So, the way that we are here in the city is is we call that our primary line of defense.
Jeremy:Like I said, you could probably stand in certain locations and have them go, that doesn't even I don't see I don't see a raised embankment here. I don't see something here. It's because it's already high ground compared to other to to the the surrounding ground around it. What it means though is it's the best location to do a dike raise should the city respond during a bigger flood event. There are certain spots on Pembina that are primary dike.
Natalie:The road itself?
Jeremy:Yeah. Certain spots of St. Ann's are identified as being primary dike. And like I said, you stand there and you do not see that. But it's that location where if we got a really severe flood and we had to respond and we had to protect people, that's where we're going to do a temporary dike raise to protect the majority of the residents on the other side.
Natalie:And this is a really good segue into the flood manual. A really important tool that has, like you said, evolved over the years, but it started as a, you've described a physical document, you know, dog eared, well loved and used, and evolved into something that other cities tell you they wish they had. Maybe take us back to that original document. Where did this start?
Jeremy:Sure. So, it was actually a number of physical documents. It was a bunch of the districts within the city. I understand that I think at the time before 'ninety seven, those districts only went up to about 19 and a half feet, James. But essentially, they laid out the various flood proofing procedures needed by the city to make sure that we're protecting the residents.
Jeremy:So, it's not just the dikes, also maybe sewer system controls on top of that. But it was very much a physical based manual that you would open up and go to and see what you have to do at this location. So, when 'ninety seven hit, obviously, it got to a level higher than that. So, something had to be done to identify what do we do if something big happens because it did. So, yeah, at the time, the city also had concerns that, you know, because it was this physical document, you had a lot of that kind of institutional knowledge where you had people who really, really knew what was going on in the system.
Jeremy:But now what happens if that person leaves maybe due to retirement or they move somewhere else or whatnot. So, the whole idea was to create this kind of comprehensive set of information that could be accessed digitally. And that's really where the flood manual came from. So, it's a comprehensive data set of known actions or procedures required to fight a flood. So, the manual itself is a water level profile is calculated for all Winnipeg's rivers.
Jeremy:And then it ties all the flood fighting tasks to a specific site specific water level along the river. So, if that profile said, you know, it's going to get this high at this location, then it ties in all the flood proofing procedures needed at that specific location. And it's all the way down the river.
Tamara:So then run us through a flood event. When forecasters start projecting how high a river could rise in the spring, what does that ramp up look like? Like put that flood manual to work.
Jeremy:Yeah. So we start pretty early on in the year, even before the flood manual. The province, they do a big summary of what the basin conditions were like just before freeze up. That information is helpful to understand kind of what might be coming down the pipeline. So, they look at things like how much water was in the soil at the time when things froze, how much base flow or by base flow, how much water was flowing down the rivers at the time.
Jeremy:And it kind of sets the stage as to what we might expect. It doesn't totally say what is going to happen during the event, but they're indicators. So, we review that information and we'll kind of plan around it. If there's something much more severe, then maybe we're already starting talks and trying to get some information. But it is also too kind of soon at that point.
Jeremy:The province releases their first flood outlook in February, usually every year. That thing is really it itself is released in to the public, so it's an official document. With that information, we take the province's forecast. We they actually give especially here in in the city, they they give three kind of numbers at James. They'll give a favorable weather option, a normal and an unfavorable weather where a favorable weather would be something like where there's maybe a really slow melt, maybe get something that is not a lot of spring precipitation versus an unfavorable weather where it's the complete opposite.
Jeremy:Now it's like, well, if it melts really quick? Or what if there's a whole bunch of spring rain that falls while that's all happening?
Tamara:Or blizzard like in 'ninety seven?
Jeremy:Yeah. So, with that, we always start our planning based on that upper planning, that kind of worst case scenario. With that, though, sometimes we may add a little bit of buffer to things because we have to factor in what the ice might do. So, since we come up with a planning profile, but that planning profile now, we will use the flood manual. It'll now tell us these are the flood proofing procedures that need to be done.
Jeremy:So it'll kind of it'll it not only tells us where they are, but it summarizes what might be. So how many sandbags we might need, how many temporary flood pumps we might need, how many flood pump activations have to be looked at. And so with that information now, we're communicating internally within our departments. And that's the thing too is when it comes to flood planning and flood fighting, it's actually a multi department process. So, we're working with various departments, we're telling them what the resources are, and we're trying to communicate that on early enough so we can get resources ready so we're ready respond.
Natalie:Someone listening might say, well, why haven't you talked about the floodway yet? This is a you can't have the conversation about flooding without recognizing it. And yet it's a good opportunity to share what as the city of Winnipeg, we can and can't do when it comes to that piece of infrastructure.
Jeremy:Yeah. So, the floodway is very instrumental to our flood proofing within the city Of Winnipeg. It diverts water around the city. The flood gates themselves are actually on the river and they'll kind of control how much does come through the city and then with the remainder having to go around the city. It's operated by the province.
Jeremy:So, it's not a city of Winnipeg infrastructure. Province is the one that operate it, and they have to operate with a set of rules that are within their license. So for those who actually do closely watch our water levels on our website at James, sometimes you might actually see that we might sometimes get two peaks on the river. You might kind of see the river levels come up really, really quickly. And then all of a sudden, bit of a dip.
Jeremy:That's usually because that's waiting for that ice to clear out and then Floodway gets operated and then it's able to slowly ramp the level up after that. So, sometimes it happens where there might be two peaks. Sometimes it's only the one. But usually, you see two, that's because that first one's when the floodway is being operated.
Natalie:Know, maybe if you don't have the numbers right in front of you. Certainly your job is supported by the protection we have there with the Red River Floodway. You know, floods that we could have seen in the past since it's been built have been significantly reduced.
Jeremy:Yeah. So significantly, yes. The Floodway working together with Shellmouth Reservoir and Porch Diversion, which are other flood mitigation structures, provides significant benefit to reducing flooding impacts within Winnipeg. Essentially, the benefit is less water through the city. So, once again, talking James Avenue levels, the benefit can be anywhere from a couple of feet to in some cases over 10 feet lower water levels to the city.
Jeremy:And this is differing per flood event. So, good example of this was in 2022, where the James Avenue level never got above 19 feet. The peak levels could have been about nine and a half feet higher without these structures doing their job.
Tamara:Thinkful it's there. Something listeners might not know is really all the work that goes on behind the scenes, the invisible work that really does help minimize flooding. So, let's say there's a non event, no properties get increased water, nothing. But that's actually a lot of work and a lot of it went into a lot of planning. Explain some of that stuff.
Jeremy:Yeah. So, kind of touched on this a little bit earlier. But yeah, so we start off with the promises forecast and then we're running things on our flood manual. So, we're actually running a number of scenarios. We're trying to nail down what do we think might actually happen with that.
Jeremy:We also factor in. We actually do a lot of ice modeling within the city. So, we have models that we'll run and based on what we're seeing, what those impacts might be, we're now comparing that to what is going on with the flood manual and then we're selecting a profile to work with. We coordinate with a lot of the departments. When we're actually in the thick of things and if we're getting daily updates from the province, we're making sure we're relaying that information to the various operation teams so they know what they may have to do with the flood model.
Jeremy:Something that's actually kind interesting about the flood manual itself too is it's not just a planning tool, it's also an activity tracking tool. So, during an event, we raise things up and it tells us what kind of procedures have to be initiated at that level. Rather than go in and say, okay, here's what we're planning for, go and do everything. It allows us to, as a city, stage things up and get to certain things within time. And then as levels start coming up, then we're raising that activity tracker again and looking to see what actually has to be managed.
Jeremy:So, we're closely monitoring the river levels within the city. We're closely monitoring what the ice is doing because that ice, once again, it's that uncertainty of what's going to happen, what might stage here, what might happen there. With all that, and we're using that to communicate to the various teams that need to go out and actually do something about it on system. One thing I do really want to highlight is that when we say non events, we treat every event like it's critical. So even if an event may be less concerned than another year, we're still putting the same dedication into it.
Jeremy:We're still treating them the same way of what do we think is going to happen? What might that do? And what do we have to do with our system? Even if private properties aren't being identified as needing sandbags, there's still a lot of work that's going on behind the scenes to make sure that we're protecting the city.
Tamara:And we're just not talking about a flood, let's say, like a massive summer rainstorm is also an event for your team.
Jeremy:Yeah, if we've had that happen a couple times in the past where the levels in the city have come up pretty high. That was at 2019 was kind of a more recent one, where in the fall, levels came up. So, again, we're using the flood manual even those cases. We're getting updates from the province as needed. We're building that into our system and we're seeing what actually has to happen and then responding to them as they occur.
Natalie:When you say respond, is this someone going and turning the taps on and off in certain parts of our sewer? What do you mean by respond?
Jeremy:Yes. So, on the sewer system side of things, there's a lot of where we've got outfalls, that's an opportunity for water. If river level comes up, water can come up through the sewer system and then potentially cause basement flooding. So, in a lot of our outfalls, we'll have controls in place that'll shut off and make sure that water can't come back up through the pipe. So, sometimes some of the sewer system controls are making sure that those controls are actually doing their job, then those gates are actually closed and water's not coming up.
Jeremy:But then it's also making sure that there's kind of bypass systems in place to draw those systems down as needed.
Natalie:Great. And now on the flip side of, you know, from the invisible to the visible elements of flood protection, you mentioned it when the water can start to rise high enough to spill over those riverbanks and people and properties are at risk. Can you tell us what would someone experience if your team had a reason to believe that their home was at risk?
Jeremy:The city will respond to citizens notifying them that they may potentially be at risk. It's kind of a general notice of the way things are running. Your property is potentially triggered as being at risk. It's kind of a two way conversation. It gives that opportunity to let them know we're seeing things, we're just letting you know you might be at risk, and here's also a way to contact us if you have questions during that process.
Natalie:Are you knocking on the door?
Jeremy:I believe handwritten notices are actually given to people and it's something that they can, like it's that information pamphlet that says what kind of what to do and what to expect next. With that, those properties that have been identified as risk, usually what happens is, as know, city will send a survey after their property and they'll actually identify and mark out where they would have to build a dike and then those they'll put stakes in the ground that will also show to what height they have to build the dike to. But we don't immediately tell people, right away, you got go build a dike. We're watching things. And if conditions are right, maybe not right, if conditions are turning out to being a requiring a sign of a dike or maybe forecasts are showing that something's going to happen, we're then letting people know, okay, now's the time you may want to start looking into getting a dike built or maybe getting volunteers ready for yourself.
Jeremy:And then if someone agrees to building a dike on their property, we, the city, will provide them the sandbags, they'll provide them the poly wrap and the instructions of what to do next. Those are usually properties on the wet side of the primary dikes. We call it the wet side, it's the riverside of the primary dikes. The reality there is, if we got a really big event where the primary dike needs to be raised, that's a city responsibility. So we take that on.
Jeremy:So someone who lives on the dry side now, we're not going to be contacting people saying you have to do something because it's it's it's like I said, it's people on the wet side that that tend to get contacted.
Tamara:And they're the ones that probably have an inclination. They're not it's not something surprising for them.
Jeremy:That's actually an interesting point. Something that, of course, happens is we get new residents all the time. I remember there's been a couple of times where there are certain residents that were very new to the property. They weren't aware what was necessary. So, they're now they get that notice saying you're potentially at risk And they now, of course, they see the water is right behind their house.
Jeremy:They see it coming up. So, sometimes just being there to be able to provide people that degree of like, okay, yes, we're seeing what's happening too. Helping put their minds at ease is what's happening.
Tamara:That's a big ask for residents to build a sandbike dike on their properties. So I know it isn't lost on you. And it also means that we're managing trust and public confidence in your predictions. How are you working through that on your end?
Jeremy:So, that's a really, really good question. When it comes to telling people about sandbag dykes, because the responsibility is on the homeowner to build their dyke, we don't want to give people notice to say build something and then it doesn't get flooded because it kind of erodes that public trust. Like you told me to build but nothing happened. So, it's not to say we leave things to last minute. It's to say that we're kind of waiting till there's the opportune time to actually tell someone, Okay, now's the time to start doing something.
Jeremy:But communication is key, letting people know you're at risk, letting them know we're watching, we've got you in mind. Then should the need arise, telling them, Okay, now's the time to do it. The unfortunate part is sometimes we're not offered that luxury of time. Sometimes the opportunity to build a sand bed deck, depending on maybe even where it is on property, might get lost too soon. So, sometimes we do have to kind of give out that call of, okay, now's the time to go do it.
Jeremy:We really encourage you to do it.
Tamara:What does a successful flood season look like for you? Like what's your benchmark for that went really well?
Jeremy:No one gets flooded.
Tamara:And we can all sleep better because you're the one worrying.
Jeremy:Yeah. I mean, it's kind of a really short answer there, but that's really the main goal with this process is we want to make sure that no one gets flooded. So, things like our primary dikes, we want to make sure those are working as intended. If we were in a really, really severe event, we want to make sure that we're going out there and if we had to do dike races, we're doing dike races. Telling people, you you have to build sandbag dikes where they got to build them.
Jeremy:It's kind of a community response in a lot of cases, right? Like that happened in 1997. I remember many people came together and were helping out neighbors, helping out residents and responding and kind of depending on where you are, sometimes sandbag dikes themselves aren't even just on one property. They actually go across many people's properties. It's kind of a communal response.
Jeremy:So, it's not just this one person that's affected. It could be all the neighbors. So, the hope is that everybody comes together and works together on that kind of thing and works towards protecting themselves. Something else that is kind of interesting with this is the reality is, and I mentioned this before, we're basing our protection plans based on the province's unfavorable weather condition. That's about a, what they call, one in ten event.
Jeremy:It's a ten percent chance of the level getting to that height or higher, meaning it's a 90% chance of it not hitting that level. So, because of that, it's we're we're it's it's a lot of moving parts with that uncertainty, right? Like we're we're and because it takes time to build takes time to to respond to things. Sometimes we're just not offered that luxury. So, obviously, don't want to be telling someone to build a dike when it's not necessary.
Jeremy:But if conditions are ripe and something happens, sometimes it does have to happen because the risk is there and we don't want to lose that opportunity until somebody does flood.
Natalie:Jeremy, this has been great. And before we let you go, there is that last question that we do want to hear from everyone. And that is it can be work related, it cannot. What's one thing that you wish everyone knew about Winnipeg?
Jeremy:Yeah, good question. One thing that probably would keep it back to being work related and being topical right now. Every flood is different. That's something that we're always watching and seeing how things are playing out. So, City of Winnipeg, Province Manitoba has invested a lot in flood protection.
Jeremy:Things like improvements to our primary dikes, our secondary dikes, permanent flood protection at residential properties along the river, as well as the floodway expansion. Something that I think is really important to say is that even with all these improvements, the flood risk has never been fully eliminated. It's just mitigated. That's not a bad thing. It's just to say that there is still a lot of work that has to be done depending on what's actually coming down the system.
Jeremy:So, that's why we're always looking at what's happening. We're trying to always learn from past events. Anytime we get new information, we're always updating our knowledge base and then just making sure that we're kind of watching things and being prepared for future years.
Natalie:So, no such thing as mission complete, but we're glad you're here.
Jeremy:Right. Thank you.
Tamara:Thank you. Thanks. On next month's episode, we're talking about something that impacts everyone in our city, housing. Our manager of the Housing Accelerator Fund joins us for a conversation.
Natalie:Do you happen to have any questions you think we should ask? You can always give us an email. Send it over to city-podcast@Winnipeg.ca. Thanks for listening. Bye.
