With the site administrator's permission, I am starting up my 2011 flood blog here. The reason for this is that when we experience floods I often have people asking how things are going and rather than always emailing them comments and pictures I can post them here. The lounge is only accessible to CP members whereas this topic is readable by anyone including non CP members.
Anyway, today, April 21st we are still at home but it appears we will lose our road access in the next 24-36 hours. I may go out later and take some pictures.
So far, if the provincial projections are correct, it looks as if we will be cut off from the dry world by about 3 1/2 miles (at the peak) for 25 days.
I always like making my own guess, and I am saying more like 2 miles for 20 days. We'll see who wins.
I periodically run my webcam pointed out to our back yard and will try to post on here when it's live. To view it, go to---
ustream.tv then search cdnponcho and click on Flood 2011
I will try to link it but this may not work, not sure.
Yes, it just came online. I feel for you Carl. Hope it goes problem free for you!
The horizon is tilted though. I'm getting sea sick.
-- Edited by StriperSS on Thursday 21st of April 2011 06:10:24 PM
4SPEED427 said
Apr 21, 2011
Just a bit inconvenient. Should be all fine.
I have to switch over the sewage ejector to a pipe out the basement wall but it's raining right now (not sure if that shows) and I'm not excited to work outside right now!
I'll twist the camera a bit for a panoramic view!
Stephenzone said
Apr 21, 2011
is it night? the picture is black.
my bad picture is off line
-- Edited by Stephenzone on Thursday 21st of April 2011 08:12:53 PM
4SPEED427 said
Apr 21, 2011
The view from the front of our house down the driveway tonight. Looks kind of tame so far, but if history repeats it will look a lot different in a few days. Maybe this time will be different, with any luck.
In the centre in the distance you can see it flushes out some of the most useless animals ever made (my personal opinion) and leaves them homeless.
Our closest neighbour (1/2 mile) just had his farm auction less than 2 weeks ago. Needless to say he is happy camper right now, not having to deal with the stress of his farmland being under water. He is now an island.
We are 1/2 mile straight ahead. Likely this water will run over the road in the next 24-36 hours.
A little closer look, 1/4 mile to our driveway.
Home sweet home, not an island yet.
These next few are 1-2 miles from home, getting closer to the Red River. The two cars on the railway bridge are filled full to be very heavy and are used to hold the bridge in place when the water/waves etc get angry.
Highway 75 just north of Morris. This is the second busiest highway in Manitoba, second to the Trans Canada. There is a severe penalty for entering this highway by driving past the road closed signs, so I just crossed the 4 lane, turned around and went back again down the gravel road. Less than 30 seconds down the road, I met the RCMP patrolling the area!
Looking at our home, about 1/2 way between us and Morris.
My lifeline in floods is internet and phone (land line) as I use cell very little. Our cell plan is quite expensive. Because we are casual users, we buy prepaid minutes. This shows how they wrap the pedestals for the land lines. If there is even a pinhole in this plastic the pedestal fills with water and our line dies. This happened in 1997 and I was stuck with an old Motorola "brick" phone for a month! Our internet is wireless, thankfully.
I have this stick in the back for when the water comes up. Right at the bottom is a "6" written with a felt marker. That is 1996 level. About 4" up is a very poorly written "6". That is 2006. Up about 3 more feet is a "9". That is 2009. 14" above that is a "7" and that is 97, our record flood.You won't be able to see them in the pic but the "7" is about 4 feet up the stick. You can also see the water line equivalent of 97 on the wall of the old red shed to the right side. Those are 8' walls on the shed.
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Thursday 21st of April 2011 08:38:55 PM
Elroy said
Apr 21, 2011
cool pics and very interesting Carl. Keep us posted up here we are all interested in supporting you verbally at least !
sixtywagon said
Apr 21, 2011
Elroy wrote:
cool pics and very interesting Carl. Keep us posted up here we are all interested in supporting you verbally at least !
X2..... We're pulling for you again this year
4SPEED427 said
Apr 21, 2011
Thanks guys. I spend a lot of time each day talking with our neighbour. We just did our nightly flood call and we both admit to being somewhat uncertain as to what to expect. This one is a lot slower for some reason. If the road goes under tomorrow, you may see a lot of me on here for the weekend while I wait for the water to rise enough to be boating!!!
I may even post as much as 427 Carl......
sixtywagon said
Apr 21, 2011
The bridge camera is out for maintenance.... I check it every morning before I go to work, and as soon as I get home. Just to see how bad it is. As a kid behind my Grandparents house ran a little creek, probably 8-10 feet across and a foot deep in the deepest parts. I remember years ago, in the spring, the water came up to the back steps at the house. That Scared the S**t outta me, and everytime I see a flood somewhere it bothers me. I'm not scared of water, but what it can do. The Tsunami's do the same thing, whenever I see video on those things. Best of Luck CARL!!!!
4SPEED427 said
Apr 21, 2011
Yeah, it sucks having that camera down. I was planning my days by looking at it as well. It saved me lots of trips to town to check out where we were at!
I will start posting more pics once we are boating. It looks more impressive then!!!
StriperSS said
Apr 22, 2011
You need one of those Louisiana swamp boats, the ones with the big blocks, and big fans!
4SPEED427 said
Apr 22, 2011
This morning we will go to church and listen to a young man (not a pastor, but a man with incredible wisdom) preach what will certainly be his final message. He is terminally ill with cancer and his health is quickly failing.
If I am ever tempted to complain about my circumstances regarding this flood, I only need to look at what this fellow is facing to see I have no right to complain.
I have the Ustream camera on for a bit now. It may kick out a few times but I'll try to keep it on for a 1/2 hour or so.
timbuk said
Apr 22, 2011
goes to show no matter how crappy your shoes are someone else may have none.Hope it all works out over there for your gang carl
sixtywagon said
Apr 22, 2011
They got the bridge cam up again....But its totally out of focus. Looks like the water is over the bridge now
sixtywagon said
Apr 22, 2011
OOps, Spoke to soon, They've got it focused now
4SPEED427 said
Apr 22, 2011
sixtywagon wrote:
OOps, Spoke to soon, They've got it focused now
Oh cool. I took a picture of it the other day. This is it, up on that pole to the right, staring out at the water. To put it in perspective, the closest house in the picture is about 75 feet from the water (on the other side of the dike of course!) and if the dirt wasn't there, the house would likely have about 18"-24" on it's main floor.
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Friday 22nd of April 2011 12:58:30 PM
4SPEED427 said
Apr 22, 2011
Scenery changed a little bit overnight. If you look way off in the distance and compare it with my shot 16 hours ago, you see a lot more water coming at us from the other side of the railway.
Coming home from church just now, we were greeted by this 1/2 mile from home. The water to the right of the road is what is heading under (or maybe over) the railway and filling us up.
4SPEED427 said
Apr 22, 2011
If you happen to be watching CBC news tonight and see an interview with Merv Dueck at Morris, that is filmed at the neighbours 1/2 mile north. In the pic above, the white van is the CBC van at his house.
Sadly, as usual, they were hoping for a "sensational" story but they didn't really get one.
Canadian Poncho said
Apr 22, 2011
I found a good video of footage of the flood from an airplane
Yes, just don't take the narration too seriously! The audio portion of that video is the target of a lot of mockery around here! It's way too dramatic.
Almost all of us are well prepared for this flood. With a little bit of caution and common sense there will be very little actual loss of anything valuable.
And beware, it looks lots worse from the air. Some areas that look swamped are actually only seeing a mere inch or two of water.
4SPEED427 said
Apr 22, 2011
A bunch of still pictures from the same plane ride.
I put a short video on Youtube tonight. We had to move our vehicles out while we could, one mile north. Hopefully they stay dry where we parked them until tomorrow!
If you pause the video at about the 1:00 mark, then compare it to the still photo here from 2009, you will get an idea as to what we have now and what we are forecast to have in a week. Those two shots would be almost exactly the same location, the boat shot being right on top of the road! This would be 1/4 mile north of our driveway approximately.
4SPEED427 said
Apr 22, 2011
In 2009, we had two separate incidents involving 4X4's ending up about 75% submerged. People just don't seem to respect washouts.
I taped this around 7:30 tonight. It got quite a bit worse since then. Only about 1/2 hour ago two young kids came through it with their GMC 4X4. My neighbour was with me and we told them we didn't need any more incidents like that and explained they have NO idea what lies under the water. We also mentioned the letters R,C,M and P if we saw them around here doing it any more.
At 21 seconds in the video, you see lights. To give you an idea of our location, that is a vehicle at the end of our driveway.
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 08:36:54 AM
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 08:53:28 AM
67SD396 said
Apr 23, 2011
Here are a few pics of the Morris bridge during the 2009 flood so we can compare as the water rises. One pic from the dry side of the Morris dyke as well.
-- Edited by 67SD396 on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 08:38:28 AM
4SPEED427 said
Apr 23, 2011
Last night we could see that the provincial road (gravel) past our place was about to go under. I just went out on my bike to see how bad it washed out. To my pleasant surprise, there was barely an inch of water on it so I rode by bike through it, rode to the truck and drove it back here.
One more day of road access!! Not a big deal to most, but huge to us!!!
With the site administrator's permission, I am starting up my 2011 flood blog here. The reason for this is that when we experience floods I often have people asking how things are going and rather than always emailing them comments and pictures I can post them here. The lounge is only accessible to CP members whereas this topic is readable by anyone including non CP members.
Anyway, today, April 21st we are still at home but it appears we will lose our road access in the next 24-36 hours. I may go out later and take some pictures.
So far, if the provincial projections are correct, it looks as if we will be cut off from the dry world by about 3 1/2 miles (at the peak) for 25 days.
I always like making my own guess, and I am saying more like 2 miles for 20 days. We'll see who wins.
I periodically run my webcam pointed out to our back yard and will try to post on here when it's live. To view it, go to---
ustream.tv then search cdnponcho and click on Flood 2011
I will try to link it but this may not work, not sure.
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/flood2011
Yes, it just came online. I feel for you Carl. Hope it goes problem free for you!
The horizon is tilted though. I'm getting sea sick.
-- Edited by StriperSS on Thursday 21st of April 2011 06:10:24 PM
I have to switch over the sewage ejector to a pipe out the basement wall but it's raining right now (not sure if that shows) and I'm not excited to work outside right now!
I'll twist the camera a bit for a panoramic view!
is it night? the picture is black.
my bad picture is off line
-- Edited by Stephenzone on Thursday 21st of April 2011 08:12:53 PM
The view from the front of our house down the driveway tonight. Looks kind of tame so far, but if history repeats it will look a lot different in a few days. Maybe this time will be different, with any luck.
In the centre in the distance you can see it flushes out some of the most useless animals ever made (my personal opinion) and leaves them homeless.
Our closest neighbour (1/2 mile) just had his farm auction less than 2 weeks ago. Needless to say he is happy camper right now, not having to deal with the stress of his farmland being under water. He is now an island.
We are 1/2 mile straight ahead. Likely this water will run over the road in the next 24-36 hours.
A little closer look, 1/4 mile to our driveway.
Home sweet home, not an island yet.
These next few are 1-2 miles from home, getting closer to the Red River. The two cars on the railway bridge are filled full to be very heavy and are used to hold the bridge in place when the water/waves etc get angry.
Highway 75 just north of Morris. This is the second busiest highway in Manitoba, second to the Trans Canada. There is a severe penalty for entering this highway by driving past the road closed signs, so I just crossed the 4 lane, turned around and went back again down the gravel road. Less than 30 seconds down the road, I met the RCMP patrolling the area!
Looking at our home, about 1/2 way between us and Morris.
My lifeline in floods is internet and phone (land line) as I use cell very little. Our cell plan is quite expensive. Because we are casual users, we buy prepaid minutes. This shows how they wrap the pedestals for the land lines. If there is even a pinhole in this plastic the pedestal fills with water and our line dies. This happened in 1997 and I was stuck with an old Motorola "brick" phone for a month! Our internet is wireless, thankfully.
I have this stick in the back for when the water comes up. Right at the bottom is a "6" written with a felt marker. That is 1996 level. About 4" up is a very poorly written "6". That is 2006. Up about 3 more feet is a "9". That is 2009. 14" above that is a "7" and that is 97, our record flood.You won't be able to see them in the pic but the "7" is about 4 feet up the stick. You can also see the water line equivalent of 97 on the wall of the old red shed to the right side. Those are 8' walls on the shed.
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Thursday 21st of April 2011 08:38:55 PM
X2..... We're pulling for you again this year
I may even post as much as 427 Carl......
As a kid behind my Grandparents house ran a little creek, probably 8-10 feet across and a foot deep in the deepest parts. I remember years ago, in the spring, the water came up to the back steps at the house. That Scared the S**t outta me, and everytime I see a flood somewhere it bothers me. I'm not scared of water, but what it can do. The Tsunami's do the same thing, whenever I see video on those things.
Best of Luck CARL!!!!
I will start posting more pics once we are boating. It looks more impressive then!!!
You need one of those Louisiana swamp boats, the ones with the big blocks, and big fans!
This morning we will go to church and listen to a young man (not a pastor, but a man with incredible wisdom) preach what will certainly be his final message. He is terminally ill with cancer and his health is quickly failing.
If I am ever tempted to complain about my circumstances regarding this flood, I only need to look at what this fellow is facing to see I have no right to complain.
I have the Ustream camera on for a bit now. It may kick out a few times but I'll try to keep it on for a 1/2 hour or so.
Oh cool. I took a picture of it the other day. This is it, up on that pole to the right, staring out at the water. To put it in perspective, the closest house in the picture is about 75 feet from the water (on the other side of the dike of course!) and if the dirt wasn't there, the house would likely have about 18"-24" on it's main floor.
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Friday 22nd of April 2011 12:58:30 PM
Coming home from church just now, we were greeted by this 1/2 mile from home. The water to the right of the road is what is heading under (or maybe over) the railway and filling us up.
Sadly, as usual, they were hoping for a "sensational" story but they didn't really get one.
I found a good video of footage of the flood from an airplane
CLICK HERE
Yes, just don't take the narration too seriously! The audio portion of that video is the target of a lot of mockery around here! It's way too dramatic.
Almost all of us are well prepared for this flood. With a little bit of caution and common sense there will be very little actual loss of anything valuable.
And beware, it looks lots worse from the air. Some areas that look swamped are actually only seeing a mere inch or two of water.
A bunch of still pictures from the same plane ride.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/multimedia/pov/Flood--120335069.html
I put a short video on Youtube tonight. We had to move our vehicles out while we could, one mile north. Hopefully they stay dry where we parked them until tomorrow!
If you pause the video at about the 1:00 mark, then compare it to the still photo here from 2009, you will get an idea as to what we have now and what we are forecast to have in a week. Those two shots would be almost exactly the same location, the boat shot being right on top of the road! This would be 1/4 mile north of our driveway approximately.
In 2009, we had two separate incidents involving 4X4's ending up about 75% submerged. People just don't seem to respect washouts.
I taped this around 7:30 tonight. It got quite a bit worse since then. Only about 1/2 hour ago two young kids came through it with their GMC 4X4. My neighbour was with me and we told them we didn't need any more incidents like that and explained they have NO idea what lies under the water. We also mentioned the letters R,C,M and P if we saw them around here doing it any more.
At 21 seconds in the video, you see lights. To give you an idea of our location, that is a vehicle at the end of our driveway.
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 08:36:54 AM
-- Edited by Carl Stevenson on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 08:53:28 AM
Here are a few pics of the Morris bridge during the 2009 flood so we can compare as the water rises. One pic from the dry side of the Morris dyke as well.
-- Edited by 67SD396 on Saturday 23rd of April 2011 08:38:28 AM
One more day of road access!! Not a big deal to most, but huge to us!!!