Although they have no interest in a sequel, the staff of the Woodlawn Regional Park will be ready if there is another flood in 2013.
After being thoroughly devastated by the floods of 2011, Woodlawn has almost recovered and will be ready to host campers again in May.
So it goes without saying that after putting in almost two years worth of work to get to that point, park staff and the board of directors are keeping a close watch on the Souris River this spring.
Manager Nathan Puffalt said Woodlawn has come to an agreement with the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency that would see the WSA pay 50 per cent of any temporary flood prevention measures and 75 per cent of permanent work.
Puffalt said the park's current priority is protecting the various buildings within the park such as Rotary Hall and Doug Third Hall. They have moved gravel to the buildings and this week will be wrapping the buildings with a poly wrap and then placing the gravel over the wrap to keep the water out if there is another flood.
"The snow has been removed from the buildings so we can get in there and do that," he said. "Hopefully that is all we will need to do for now. As far as the campsites that we have been reconstructing for the past year, there is not too much we can do at this stage.
"Prior to going in there, we had ordered pedestals for plugging in the services that are two metres tall. I don't anticipate us to have the same water levels as 2011, so all of our electrical service and water service that we put into those sites is going to be fine."
Like everyone else who is watching the situation along the Souris, Puffalt feels the next couple of weeks will be critical. He said if we get a significant amount of precipitation over that time and the WSA is forced to increase the flow from the dams, Woodlawn is likely to experience some flooding. As of late last week, Puffalt noted the water was roughly three feet from their banks with an outflow of 70 cubic metres per second from the dams.
"(If it goes to) 100 m3/s we still might be fine. We might see a little water come over the banks but not enough to cause any damage. If we get anything more than that, it will be very touchy," he said. "We have already put quite a bit of money into those buildings so we are going to make sure that the buildings for now are our top priority and if it comes to things getting worse than we imagined, then we will look at some permanent structures that we can put in."
Along with keeping a constant flood watch, Puffalt said he and Woodlawn's staff are attempting to get ready for the upcoming season although he admitted the weather has put them behind schedule.
"We are still looking good. Boundary Dam will be up, we're hoping, for May 17. There isn't too much to do out there to get it ready, it's just a bit of site maintenance and tree pruning and making sure that our gatehouse is up running by then," Puffalt said.
"As far as the gatehouse at Woodlawn, it'll be on track but the new sites in the main campground we are still looking at a July long weekend opening for those, but that will depend on what kind of spring we have. All of the seasonal sites that we have down there, they will be open May 17 as well."
