Big Ditch For A Big Flood -- Canal And Dike Stand Ready To Protect Winnipeg's Population Of 660,000

AFTER THE FLOOD OF 1950, Manitoba decided to do some digging. The Red River Floodway, a k a "Duff's Ditch," is 28 miles long and 500 feet wide, and its massive floodgates just got a fresh shot of WD-40. -----------------------------------------------------------------

WINNIPEG, Manitoba - Some cities have an architectural signature, like the Golden Gate Bridge or Empire State Building.

Winnipeg has a monstrous 28-mile-long ditch.

Known as the Red River Floodway, it operates as a relief valve. Some 500 feet wide and 30 feet deep, the earthen canal would divert water east of town. Gates would open on the south end, and 45 percent of the river's water would bypass the city and rejoin the river in the north.

It is the subject of feverish speculation in Winnipeg these days as residents watch the flood's approach.

Rumors have it that the two massive 112-foot floodgates are stuck - which would leave Winnipeg, population 660,000, far worse off than Grand Forks, N.D., less than a tenth its size.

Other speculation has it that the structure that holds the gates is failing, that city officials have a secret plan to inundate parts of the city to save others, or that the sides of the floodway are failing.

"Oh, no, we did the WD-40 thing on the gates," said Larry Whitney, a provincial engineer. "There's nothing wrong with the floodway. It's better than it's ever been."

Sandbags and wrecked buses

But wait: Winnipeg has more than just a ditch. After realizing the city was vulnerable to overland flooding that has inundated confidently prepared cities large and small in Minnesota and North Dakota, Canadian authorities started work on a 25-mile-long dike southwest of the city.

It is alternately known as the Zed Dike - for its zig-zag shape - or the Brunkild Bunker, for the tiny town at its western terminus.

Some 12,000 volunteers have laid 4 million sandbags, and bulldozers put the finishing touches on the levee just as water started to lap at its base yesterday.

Nonetheless, 8,000 residents of southwest Winnipeg have been ordered out, because high winds could whip up whitecaps and break the dike.

Engineers have lined up eight miles of wrecked school buses and cars in front of the dike - a breakwater against the Red River's surf.

Duff's Ditch a legacy of 1950

Rarely has any big city had as much warning of a natural disaster on the way. For three weeks, Winnipeggers have watched their televisions as the floodwaters surged north.

They thought they had already survived the flood of the century - a deluge in 1950 that displaced a quarter of the city's residents.

This flood is even bigger. But experts say it will only cause a fraction of the damage of the 1950 disaster thanks to the floodway built in the mid-1960s at the urging of Duff Roblin, Manitoba's then-premier.

Critics mockingly dubbed it Duff's Ditch and called it a $60 million boondoggle. But it prevented more than $1 billion in damage during floods last year and in 1979.

"I have no doubt whatsoever that if we didn't have the floodway we'd be talking potential damage in the billions" this year, said Bill Rannie, a University of Winnipeg geography professor.

"It's such a large number that it's hard to contemplate."

Trench warfare

The ditch is not unlike the front line of a city under siege.

"If we're going to lose this battle, it's not going to be without a heck of a good fight," said City Council member John Angus.

Mayor Susan Thompson has the demeanor of a battlefield general.

Daily news conferences resemble military briefings as she gestures at big maps and outlines defenses.