Red River flooding

This was passed on to me for posting by het, just as a human interest angle to this current event

My brother David lives 50 feet from the Red River north
of Winnipeg about half way between Lockport and the perimeter
highway. You may have heard about the flooding across
the river at St. Andrews. Below I have copied an email received
from him last night.

> I've been getting calls and emails about the Red River and flooding, so I thought
> I would write and let you know.
>
> On monday, after work, we had the most amazing experience. The river ice was groaning
> and moaning and cracking, breaking up due to the current's pressure. The sounds were
> eerie and amazing. It seemed that the whole of the ice was moving, then plugging up,
> pushing up and crashing down, then moving as a unit again. Going to bed that night,
> we were still hearing the sounds. When we awoke tues morning, we had open water.
>
> But the ice blockage had only moved downstream to the next curve in the river and
> got plugged up again. This is the blockage that you heard about on TV,radio and inet.
> The water level began to rise and by last evening was up higher than we had ever seen it.
> It was up and covering the first plateau on our bank (it needed to rise another 20 feet
> before it would get near our house). Our neighbours across the river have a much more
> gradual slope to their bank and are built much lower and closer to the water. One of
> the neighbours was building clay dikes all evening and the next day, one had his pump
> house flooded up to the rafters.
>
> A mile and a half north, houses on both sides of the river built on lower lots were
> flooded. River Road was covered with river water.
>
> This morning today the ice broke up and moved further north to Lockport, our river
> level fell three feet by noon hour. But the higher water level just moved north too.
> Houses and businesses along the west side of the river around Lockport are now flooded.
> I suspect this will repeat itself all the way north to Lake Winnipeg.
>
> So, the long and short of it is..... we are well and dry.
>