Five soldiers and a civilian were injured Monday when a hydraulic hose blew on a dump truck hauling sandbags for flood fighting in Souris, Man.
The six, who were resting at the nearby Plum Creek site when they were sprayed with the oily fluid, were taken to hospital in Brandon for treatment, said Lori Truscott, spokeswoman for Canadian Forces Base Shilo. Their condition is unknown.
Despite the accident, Souris Mayor Darryl Jackson said Monday he's confident the barriers in the town of 2,000 are ready.
Chief floodfighter Steve Topping said the weather forecast is fairly good because there has been minimal rain in the Souris basin. He said they've been advising municipalities along the Souris they are expecting a crest about half a metre lower than had been predicted.
Residents in the town, about 50 kilometres southwest of Brandon, have spent weeks slinging sandbags since provincial flood officials urged them to build up their protection in light of the devastation in Minot, N.D.
Part of the American city, which is also situated along the Souris, was swallowed by the floodwaters last week. The water reached levels not seen in 130 years, washed over dikes and submerged more than 4,000 homes.
Farther upstream in Saskatchewan, where the Souris begins, much of the village of Roche Percee was also inundated.
Hundreds of soldiers arrived in Souris over the weekend to help build dikes. On Sunday, the town decided to sacrifice a historic 177-metre-long footbridge — Canada's longest — to prevent it from ripping apart a protective dike.
Jackson said the anchors holding the bridge cables ran beneath a dike, and if the Souris River rose up over the bridge, the cables could tear out the anchors, making the structural failure of the dike inevitable.
The river's crest is expected to arrive some time between Tuesday and Friday.
Jordan Greig, a 17-year-old sandbag volunteer, said he's looking forward to the end of the crisis when he won't be awakened by a morning siren. The town of about 1,600 people has been regularly issuing emergency calls for volunteers by four siren bursts.
Elsewhere, the town of Melita, located in the southwest corner of Manitoba — and the first community that was bracing for the Souris crest — seems to have made it through unscathed.
Mayor Bob Walker believes the peak may have passed through the town already. The crest was about 0.6 metres higher than their spring peak of 4.4 metres.
On Monday, that level in the town, which is on a higher elevation than Souris, had dropped a few centimetres.
Based on the information he is getting from North Dakota, Walker said he believes the water level will continue to drop very slowly. The information he has received from the U.S. officials has been fairly accurate, he said.
"It's only 27 miles away and there's not a whole bunch of calculation in between, whereas when the province tries to come up with numbers they're feeding in information right back to Rafferty and Alameda."
The Rafferty-Alameda reservoir and dam structure in Saskatchewan controls levels on the Souris River.
Walker said the level in Melita was lower than Manitoba officials had told him to expect.
But there is a dike in North Dakota that he believes is holding back another 0.3 metres of water that could still be on the way.
2011年7月4日星期一
2011年5月15日星期日
The Gates Corp. donates $100,000 to aid in local relief efforts
The Gates Corp., which sustained significant damage to its Glade Spring facility in the April 28 tornado, presented $100,000 Tuesday to aid in local relief efforts.
Red Cross volunteers have been among those assisting the community ravaged by last month’s EF3 storm. The Gates plant, which employed 170 who produced hydraulic hose assemblies, was nearly leveled.
“It says a lot to me about this company that will step up and help its employees by giving this to us,” said Felisha McNabb, executive director of the Mountain Empire chapter of the American Red Cross, who accepted the donation. “They suffered a huge loss of their own, but I’ve been with this chapter for eight years – and this is the largest, single contribution I’m aware of.”
The donation is designed to “support relief and recovery efforts” and “help speed the community’s recovery,” according to a written statement issued by the company. Attempts to speak with a Gates spokesperson Tuesday were unsuccessful.
To date, the local Red Cross chapter and its volunteers have provided more than 16,400 meals and snacks during the first 10 days after the storm and is now concluding its meetings with families whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged, McNabb said. About 95 homes and 35 apartments received that designation by Red Cross officials.
“We’ve completed meeting with about 90 percent of the families, but [dispensing] all the individual assistance will take longer,” McNabb said. “We’ve met with 86 families but we’ve only paid the first month’s rent on about 2 percent of those so far.”
Officials estimate up to 95 families will seek Red Cross assistance and the agency has been unable to make contact with everyone affected.
To date, the local agency has spent about $129,000 on relief efforts.
“When we start paying out first month’s rent, that adds up in a hurry,” McNabb said.
The tornado recovery effort from the storm system currently ranks as the second largest in chapter history. Local case workers processed more than 200 victims who fled the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their homes in 2005, expending more than $500,000.
While the local chapter is concluding its relief efforts, it also plans to be part of the long-term solution.
“Our assistance is meant for immediate needs after a disaster – food, shelter and clothing,” McNabb said. “There will be additional needs that come up and we want to be part of the long-term recovery efforts in any way we can.”
Red Cross volunteers have been among those assisting the community ravaged by last month’s EF3 storm. The Gates plant, which employed 170 who produced hydraulic hose assemblies, was nearly leveled.
“It says a lot to me about this company that will step up and help its employees by giving this to us,” said Felisha McNabb, executive director of the Mountain Empire chapter of the American Red Cross, who accepted the donation. “They suffered a huge loss of their own, but I’ve been with this chapter for eight years – and this is the largest, single contribution I’m aware of.”
The donation is designed to “support relief and recovery efforts” and “help speed the community’s recovery,” according to a written statement issued by the company. Attempts to speak with a Gates spokesperson Tuesday were unsuccessful.
To date, the local Red Cross chapter and its volunteers have provided more than 16,400 meals and snacks during the first 10 days after the storm and is now concluding its meetings with families whose homes were destroyed or severely damaged, McNabb said. About 95 homes and 35 apartments received that designation by Red Cross officials.
“We’ve completed meeting with about 90 percent of the families, but [dispensing] all the individual assistance will take longer,” McNabb said. “We’ve met with 86 families but we’ve only paid the first month’s rent on about 2 percent of those so far.”
Officials estimate up to 95 families will seek Red Cross assistance and the agency has been unable to make contact with everyone affected.
To date, the local agency has spent about $129,000 on relief efforts.
“When we start paying out first month’s rent, that adds up in a hurry,” McNabb said.
The tornado recovery effort from the storm system currently ranks as the second largest in chapter history. Local case workers processed more than 200 victims who fled the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina destroyed their homes in 2005, expending more than $500,000.
While the local chapter is concluding its relief efforts, it also plans to be part of the long-term solution.
“Our assistance is meant for immediate needs after a disaster – food, shelter and clothing,” McNabb said. “There will be additional needs that come up and we want to be part of the long-term recovery efforts in any way we can.”
订阅：
博文 (Atom)