The largest evacuations of 1974 floods that saw practically all rivers in south and central Manitoba overflow according to the national disaster database happened around Peguis First Nation.

They started on a Friday, when 30 people were driven out from the Peguis reserve to Gimli, according to an archived field report.

By the weekend, road conditions were “impossible.” Thirteen helicopters transported 1,039 people from Peguis and Fisher River Cree Nation to a nearby community in an operation that took seven hours. Most ended up settling at an old Gimli Air Force base, the report says, with locals helping provide food and clothing.

Peguis resident Melvin Spence lived through that. He also lived through major floods in 1986, 2004, 2009, 2014, 2017 and 2022.

On Wednesday, the 72-year-old was doing what he’s done regularly for more than 50 years: setting up sand barriers.

“The last flood, the basement flooded about a foot and a half, and everything got damaged,” Spence said, referring to the 2022 flood, which led to the evacuation of over 1,000 people, many of whom haven’t been able to return home.

He said his house has flooded about six times.

“I’m staying in a condemned house that has been condemned twice,” Spence said. “I got sick too from breathing that mould in. Now I got to take puffers…. It’s bad.”

Runoff on the Fisher River and Icelandic River was expected to begin early next week in the Interlake region, according to a provincial flood bulletin issued Tuesday.

Peguis Chief Stan Bird said that, as volunteers, local contractors and community members have been racing around the clock over the past few days to prepare ahead of a looming flood, some of the First Nation’s elderly have also been lending a hand.

“Some of the older people that have stepped up, they’re getting tired. The grandmothers, you know, the grandfathers,” Bird said Tuesday.

“Our people … they’re resilient. And despite what we face … there’s always hope. Our people have never given up hope.”

The Canadian Red Cross said in a news release Wednesday it’s deployed personnel and specialized technicians near Peguis, partnering with disaster relief charity GlobalMedic to deploy sandbagging equipment and flood barriers.

The Red Cross said it will also be giving the community rubber boots and other protective gear, and setting up warming tents.

‘Our nose is to the grindstone’

James Sutton with Team Rubicon Canada — a non-profit that came to Peguis to help — said more than 60 people from all across the country have come to Peguis to help out.

On Wednesday, the volunteers were building a dike around a home out of “super sandbags,” huge cloth bags filled with sand higher than the level water is expected to reach.

“Every night we say ‘What’s our house for tomorrow?'” Sutton said. “The community gives us the address, ‘This is the house.’ And that’s the one we do.”

Peguis said more than 200 homes need to be protected from the flood.

“Our nose is to the grindstone,” Sutton said. “We’re worried about the next 12 hours. So what are we doing today, what are we doing tomorrow morning?”

Indigenous Services Canada said Wednesday they’re working closely with Peguis and Fisher River Cree Nation to find a longer-term solution to the chronic flooding.

The province has previously said it’s exploring long-term fixes, with the community ultimately deciding how to proceed.

“Hopefully the government tries to do something,” Spence said. “Because it’s over and over, over and over and over the same thing.”

Reeve ‘nervous’ as RM braces for snowstorm, fast melt

West of the Interlake, the province has also warned there is an elevated risk of overland flooding in the Parkland Region.

The province said Tuesday cold temperatures may slow down the snowmelt rate for a few days, but there’s a high chance of a fast runoff with temperatures returning to above-zero early next week.

An Environment Canada alert that was in place for the region ended Wednesday evening. The federal agency had forecasted some areas could see between 10 and 20 centimetres of snow.

Swan Valley West Reeve Bill Gade said the rural municipality was sandbagging a few homes Wednesday morning, a measure he said is rare for a region that’s more sloped than other parts of the largely flat province.

A recent snowstorm had left snow drifts over 2 metres tall, Gade said, with some areas getting about an inch of rain overnight on top of that.

“It’s not like the pictures you see when Winnipeg floods. But certainly we got plenty of water here this morning,” Gade said, adding that some residences’ basements and a recreation centre in Benito flooded.

“We’re a little bit nervous,” he said. “If we get another foot of snow … we will again have that access issue on top of the flooding and [having to] first dig our way out before we can deal with the flooding.”

Residents are being asked to keep five days’ worth of supplies just in case, and the RM has also put in a request for more sandbags, the reeve said.