Flood protection measures are being put in place in municipalities along the lower Assiniboine River as flows continue to rise.

Flood officials say flows on the lower Assiniboine were 13,000 cfs Monday and will increase gradually this week to upwards of 16,000 cfs at expected crest on Wednesday or Thursday. Flows on the Portage Diversion were 19,000 cfs Monday. In its latest flood bulletin, Manitoba Infrastructure's Hydrologic Forecast Centre explains the expectation remains the Assiniboine and Souris rivers may peak at the same time at the Portage Reservoir, creating expected inflows of approximately 43,000 cfs at crest.

"Based on those projected inflows of 43,000 cfs, the province will be conducting flow management using the Portage Diversion to manage flows on the lower Assiniboine river," says Doug McMahon, assistant deputy water management with Manitoba Infrastructure. "This also means preparations for temporary flood protection measures are being put into place along the lower Assiniboine river downstream of the Portage Diversion by those affected municipalities ... preparations are underway as well along the Portage Diversion to handle emergency flows above 25,000 cfs."

"It's anticipated the Portage Diversion may be required to be flowing beyond the designed flow of 25,000 cfs for approximately five days."

Manitoba Infrastructure Emergency Measures Organization assistant deputy Lee Spencer says flood preparation work commenced over the weekend with local governments, including: Headingley, RM of Cartier, RM of St. Francois Xavier, RM of Portage la Prairie and various First Nations.

The province opened a sandbagging operation at the Manitoba Infrastructure yard in Portage la Prairie. It produced 55,000 sandbags by Monday with the assistance of firefighters from the Manitoba Sustainable Development Wildfire Program, and volunteer firefighters from Morden, Miami, Morris, Roland and Carman. The sandbags are being delivered to the municipalities and areas that need flood protection to meet the demand of expected flows of 16,000 cfs on the lower Assiniboine.

"Sandbagging activities are concentrated mostly in St. Francis and Cartier, however there is some work being done in the RM of Portage," says Spencer. "But it's not at the same level of effort as necessary in Cartier and St. Francis."

The plan is to complete flood protection activities in affected areas by day's end Wednesday in expectation of crest Thursday. "And we believe we're well on the way to meeting that target," Spencer adds.