Previous Floods
The Red River in Manitoba and the U.S. States of Minnesota and North Dakota has flooded repeatedly through the centuries, endangering lives and property. The river is highly prone to flooding because of its northward flow. As spring approaches, the snow is melted from south to north alongside the riverflow. There is also the possibility that the surplus water can hit unmelted ice on the river and back up. The flatness of the terrain and small slope of the river is a significant factor.
Floods occurred in both 1948 and 1950. The 1950 flood reached a high of 30 ft (9.2 m) at Winnipeg—causing the largest evacuation in Canada's history of 100,000 people and $606 million CAD (1997) of damage, prompting the government of Manitoba to set up flood safety measures.
The first known records of floods along the Red River appeared in the 1770s. Severe floods occurred throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, with one of the most recent major floods occurring in 1979. Homes not damaged in that flood were incorrectly assumed to be safe from a future flood.
Read more about this topic: 1997 Red River Flood
Famous quotes containing the words previous and/or floods:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“In early times, before the floods swept across the world, there was life, albeit odd, as one can see from the fossils of mammoth bones, and there was the regime of Prince Metternich.”
—Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872)