The Mississippi's Wrath... in Manitoba

When the Mississippi floods, Louisiana isn't the only place that takes a hit. The southern part of my home province of Manitoba, Canada, floods almost every spring. The Red River runs right through the province (right through my mother's back yard in Winnipeg, in fact -- yes, she has to sandbag every year), and feeds off the Mississippi, so when one overflows, so does the other. (The flood gates in North Dakota and the kind folks down in Grand Forks complicate matters, too, but we won't get into that right now...)

When I say flood, I mean flood. The near biblical proportions that we witnessed in '97 were worst by far (they called it "the Flood of the Century," and brought both the army and high school students in by the bus load to build dikes and sandbag), but the water rises up and washes out miles of farmland every spring.

Here are some pictures of this year's relatively small flood. They were taken near Morris, St. Jean Batiste, and between St. Agathe and St. Adolphe, MB.

Indeed, Louisiana is not alone.