M. Butterfield berichtet über den Stand der Dinge und ihre Live Cam in Winnipeg:

As the Red River climbs to historic levels, so too does the anxiety level among Winnipeggers. Many in the city remember the Great Flood of 1950 that ate up one-tenth of the city and destroyed more than 10,000 homes.

But a lot has changed since then. No other community along the Red River is better protected than Winnipeg. Lines of defence range from huge permanent earthen dikes to sandbag dikes put up by human chains in the last few days.

Winnipeggers and people around the world can watch the rising Red River via Thomson New Media’s Digital Flood Camera. Located on the east side of the Red River, the camera records water levels regularly at „The Forks“ in downtown Winnipeg. The Forks is the historic site of the convergence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, the birthplace of Winnipeg and western Canada.

Winnipeg is located in the centre of Canada far from the oceans that flank North America. To trade goods in the mid-continent indigenous peoples and settlers came to the Forks via the Red and Assiniboine to exchange goods. Today Winnipeg is a city of approximately 750,000 people. The background of our digital camera shows one of the most famous corners in Canada: Portage Avenue and Main Street. The corner is rumored to be the windiest corner in North America.

The Red River is one of the only major rivers in North America that flows northward. It moves across a flat plain rich in topsoul left by the glacial lake agassiz.

Thomson New Media is located in Winnipeg, Canada. „Our flood camera was the first one set-up to cover the flood in Winnipeg,“ says Maureen Butterfield, spokesperson and manager for Thomson New Media. „We began work on our site during the worst snowstorm in the last 100 years in Winnipeg. The blizzard swept through Winnipeg on April 5th and 6th and when we compounded the large amount of melting snow with the floodwaters coming from Grand Forks, we knew we were going to have a flood like never before. We immediately got moving on a flood site.“

The Thomson New Media flood site houses a digital camera, panaramic quick time movies of the flood, a photo gallery, archival material from past floods, a message centre and daily updates from the Winnipeg Free Press.

We receive about 20,000 hits a day, and emails are pouring in from all over the world. So far, our offices in downtown Winnipeg are dry. If people would like to send us email, our address is [email protected]. Our site is housed on http://www.netreader.com/flood/

Alle 2 Minuten wird dieses Live Bild aktualisiert und zeigt den verheerenden Lauf des Red River in Winnipeg, Canada!

auch hier schlägt Red River zu. Donald Schwert aus Fargo kommentiert:

The Red River flows northward, draining a vast, flat, fertile surface that once was the floor of Lake Agassiz, a giant glacial lake. In the United States, the Red River forms the border between the states of North Dakota and Minnesota. Its waters then enter the province of Manitoba in Canada. The Red River flows through Winnipeg, Manitoba (population 560,000), although a diversion channel helps to reduce flooding by carrying a portion of the waters around the city.

The flooding this year was a consequence of record snowfalls, with a bitterly cold winter that persisted into early April. A sudden thaw released meltwaters onto the flat land surface. Shallow lakes covering hundreds of square kilometers suddenly formed on the land surface, flooding villages and farms. The lakes drained as „sheets“ of water into the Red River, which rose suddenly and dramatically to levels higher than have been ever observed. The North Dakota city of Fargo was barely able to confine the river within a channel lined by high dikes. The North Dakota city of Grand Forks was not as fortunate; here, severe flooding forced the evacuation of >50,000 residents. Most will not be able to permanently return to their homes until at least late May.

The live cam view at Fargo is from the 18th-floor of the Radisson Hotel. The view looks east across the river toward Moorhead, Minnesota. The Red River crested here on April 18th at 12.0 m depth. The high-water mark is clearly visible on the bridge to the right. A temporary dike of earth bordering the river is visible in the foreground. This live cam is hosted by Prairie Public Television and is linked into the Fargo Flood Homepage at: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/fargoflood/ . A time-lapse movie (MPEG or Quicktime) of the flood event made from this live cam is available on the Fargo Flood Homepage.

Live cam views of the flood from Grand Forks ceased upon flooding of the city. At Winnipeg, one of the live cams ceased operation on April 28th due to the rising water.

The Red River is expected to crest at Winnipeg on May 1st or 2nd. Thousands of residents have been evacuated from southern Manitoba, where the flood now forms a lake up to 25 km wide.

Donald Schwert, Geologist North Dakota State University, Fargo