Winnipeg Flood Record and Archives Committee
- 1997-
The Flood Record and Archives Committee was created in May of 1997 by the Chief Commissioner, Board of Commissioners of the City of Winnipeg, and was dissolved in [1998]. Its mandate was to collect records of all Winnipeg, Manitoba floods from City departments and to add to existing archives. Collecting focussed on records created by the City of Winnipeg administration, records collected from outside organisations for elected officials, and records existing in the City of Winnipeg Archives. The Committee was chaired by the City Clerk, and included the City Records Manager and Archivist, the Emergency Program Co-ordinator, and a Flood of the Century journalist from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
The Emergency Preparedness and Co-ordination Committee was created in the early 1980’s, and managed the 1997 flood in Winnipeg. It co-ordinated the activities of all civic departments, outside agencies, the public sector, and volunteer groups during the State of Emergency. In April and May, sandbagging operations were undertaken along rivers in the city and in the flooded regions to the south as the Red River crested at 24.5 feet above normal. Rural and urban areas were evacuated, and the Provencher Bridge in Saint-Boniface was closed. The EPCC’s permanent provincial affiliate is the Inter-agency Committee for Emergency Preparedness, co-ordinated by the Manitoba Emergency Measures Organisation. The EPCC is supervised by the city’s Emergency Control Committee (Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Chair of Works and Operations, Chair of Protection, Parks and Culture, and Board of Commissioners members) which is responsible for implementing the Emergency Preparedness Program. The EPCC is chaired by the Commissioner of Protection, Parks and Culture and operates out of the Emergency Operations Centre in the City Hall Council building basement.