Manitoba Calls in Troops for Flood Relief

For the first time since 1997, soldiers are helping the towns and cities west of Winnipeg prepare for a record-setting flood.

The Canadian Forces have been called in to help Manitobans west of Winnipeg set up sandbags to buttress themselves against the rising Assiniboine River, which has reached its highest-ever level this month. It's the first time since 1997's “Flood of the Century” that the province has asked for military assistance in combatting the floods, which have covered more of Manitoba's land area this year than ever before. The couple hundred soldiers will assist in laying the nearly three million sandbags that still need to be set up along the Assiniboine in the next three days. Some 800 soldiers have also been working in Quebec's Richelieu region during the past week to fight flooding there, but water levels have begun to recede.