WINNIPEG -- The Manitoba government is making disaster financial assistance available to those affected by this spring's flooding.
Emergency Measures Minister Steve Ashton said the damage is still being tallied, but so far he's aware of about 200 homes that have sustained some form of damage in the province.
No significant injuries have been reported.
"There's going to be a significant amount of damage," Ashton said, noting $12 million was paid out for the 2006 flood, "and we're well above that already."
Most of the damage so far has occurred in the municipalities of St. Clements and St. Andrews, where Ashton said people have experienced similar chaos to what happened in the southern Red River Valley in 1997.
"This is their '97," Ashton said. "This is an unprecedented event that's caused damage and trauma for individuals."
Disaster financial assistance is available for non-insurable damage to homes and businesses, and for things like evacuation and damage prevention costs.
The federal government is expected to kick in up to 90% of the total.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit Morris at 12:30 p.m. today to get a first-hand look at flood damage.
Harper and Premier Gary Doer will then head to the Winnipeg airport, where they will be making an announcement regarding the inland port project.
Meanwhile, American officials have begun tallying the massive flood-related damage south of the border.
Deaths and damage
There has been one flood-related death in Minnesota, where a 58-year-old man from Climax, Minn., located about 40 km south of Grand Forks, was killed last week when rising floodwaters caught him in his vehicle.
Two people suffered fatal heart attacks sandbagging in North Dakota, although those deaths occurred not in the Red River Valley, but in the central and western portions of the state where floodwaters are also a problem.
North Dakota reports 205 injuries and 58 illnesses related to flooding statewide, as well as 472 properties that have been damaged, including 212 that sustained major damage and one that was ruined.
Minnesota's Department of Public Safety has completed preliminary damage estimates in only four counties, and has found 77 homes either destroyed or significantly damaged, and roughly the same amount that sustained minor damage.
There has also been at least $17 million in damage to public infrastructure like roads and bridges in Minnesota.
Neither state has completed its assessments yet, as the high waters remain a threat.
paul.turenne@sunmedia.ca
