Farmland faces flooding in Manitoba

Volunteers sandbag on the southern dike of the Assiniboine River in Brandon, Manitoba on Monday, May 9, 2011. The high water levels of the Assiniboine River are threatening surrounding communities. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)

BRANDON, Man. - A municipal reeve says a controlled release of water from the swollen Assiniboine River in Manitoba is expected to flood 300 homes — twice as many as originally expected.

Kam Blight says the release will also devastate high-value farmland that produces a large share of the province's vegetable and specialty crops.

Area residents are frantically trying to find sandbags and remove what they can from their houses before the release, which could come as early as Wednesday.

They have lots of questions about how the flood is being handled and why their area is being sacrificed to preserve other regions.

Meanwhile, officials in Brandon in western Manitoba say dikes appear to be holding back the rising river.

They say the flow may have actually peaked.

A beaver rests on a dike on the south side of the Assiniboine River in Brandon, Man. as volunteers and machinery work in the background on Monday May 9, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Brandon Sun - Tim Smith)

Crews sandbag a business on the north bank of the Assiniboine River in Brandon, Man. on Monday, May 9, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)

Bryan Ezako, owner of a home which is surrounded by water on Golden Oak Cove, boats to his home near St. Francis Xavier, Man., Monday, May 9, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)

Military personnel from the C Company, 2PPCLI, help sandbag just outside Poplar Point in Manitoba, Monday, May 9, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)

Work is done to build up the dikes of the Portage Diversion just outside Portage La Prairie in Manitoba, Monday, May 9, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)

Crews set up an Aqua dam on top of the southern dike of the Assiniboine River in Brandon, Manitoba on Monday, May 9, 2011. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)