Strohschein: Watches, warnings and common sense
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- Published on Thursday, July 17, 2014
By: Neil Strohschein
In a recent interview with CBC’s George Strombolopolous, Canadian actor Steve Smith (whom most people know as Red Green) revealed that while he has great respect for doctors and the work that they do, he only goes to see them when he knows that something is seriously wrong.
His rationale is simple. “I know I’m dying,” he said. “The only thing the doctor can tell me is if I am going to die ahead of schedule, on schedule or behind schedule.” Interesting logic, but to me, it makes good sense.
It’s the same logic people in southern Manitoba have been using for the past few weeks. From the moment we heard how much rain had fallen in the recent storms, especially in south east Saskatchewan, every resident of the Assiniboine River valley began to make preparations for what they knew was coming — huge volumes of water, drained from thousands of square miles of land were going to be pushed through narrow channels major towns and cities en route to Lake Winnipeg and ultimately Hudson Bay.
We knew the water was coming. What we didn’t know was how much was coming, how quickly it would arrive and how long it will stay. For that information, we relied on the watches and warnings issued by the Manitoba government’s flood forecasters.
They told us that the water was coming quickly and in volumes equivalent to those we experienced in the spring of 2011. They also warned us that any delay in closing dikes, sandbagging vulnerable properties or getting animals and people to safety on higher ground would prove to be disastrous.
Thankfully, those in the path of the surging waters took the warnings seriously and now we wait to see how soon the water will recede and how many millions (or perhaps billions) of dollars in damages will be sustained.
One wonders, however, if some of the other watches and warnings we’ve heard in the past few weeks will be heeded by those who govern us.
Already we are hearing calls for an inter-provincial strategy to keep ‘once in 300 year floods’ from happening every three years. We are being told that the damage suffered in 2011 was bad enough. This year is worse, especially in the oil-rich regions of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. If another storm of equal intensity should hit us within the next year, the damage could be far more extensive.
About 10 years ago, I was talking with a friend about some overland flooding that had happened in his community. “Neil,” he said, “I think we are our own worst enemies. What do we do when we have a low spot in a field that holds water after a rain? We dig a ditch and drain it. So the water runs away. Our land stays dry, but in the process, those downstream from us get flooded out. We are doing this to ourselves.”
My friend’s words reflect a common sense approach to water conservation and water resource management. We need to stop interfering with nature and let the land do what God created it to do. Low spots and marshes have a purpose. They provide homes for wild life, especially birds. And they hold back the water from heavy rains, keeping it from causing problems in the low lying areas.
When we mess with the checks and balances God has built into his creation, we cause problems for ourselves and for our neighbours. It’s time we take these messages seriously and try to undo the damage we’ve done before another even greater disaster strikes.
