Dozens of out-of-towners arrived in a tiny Manitoba town on Friday to help hurl sandbags in an attempt to staunch rising river waters.
The Souris River is threatening the town of Wawanesa, a village of 500 near Brandon, Manitoba, where officials think the river could rise as much as 2.5 metres.
The nearby town of Melita, upstream from Wawanesa, saw the river water level rise by almost 15 centimetres on Friday morning, surprising officials and forcing the closure of Highway 3, a major route in and out of town. The town's 1,100 residents have been issued evacuation alerts.
The province said on Friday evening that the river is moving faster than thought and will arrive in communities a day earlier than expected, on July 4.
The helpers in Wawanesa are being paid $15 an hour for the hard work of making the sandbags and building a dike before the peak of the flooding arrives.
Joel Edmundson, an NHL draft pick for the St. Louis Blues, boarded the bus into town to help out on Friday morning.
"We know what it's like in Brandon because we were almost flooded so it's good to help out the community," he told CTV Winnipeg," and I know a couple people from Wawanesa so it's always nice to help out others."
The townspeople have been sandbagging and digging the dike, which is nearly two kilometres long and up to three metres high in spots, for the last week.
"None of us have ever dealt with anything that even remotely compares," Wawanesa Mayor Bruce Gullett said.
"We got a lot of people that aren't used to slugging sandbags eight to 10 hours a day and we're wearing them out."
Authorities in Wawanesa have already evacuated 17 homes, the town's personal care home and the hospital. More evacuations may be necessary.
With files from CTV Winnipeg
