A local state of emergency has been declared in a western Manitoba municipality after homes in Ochre Beach were destroyed and seriously damaged by a wave of lake ice.
Area officials told CBC News the wind pushed built-up ice off Dauphin Lake on Friday evening and caused it to pile up in the community, located on the lake’s southern shore.
The piles of ice, which were more than nine metres tall in some cases, destroyed at least six homes and cottages, according to the Rural Municipality of Ochre River.
Another 14 homes suffered extensive damage, with some structures knocked off their foundations.
Clayton Watts, Ochre River’s deputy reeve, said it’s a miracle no one was hurt.
He told CBC News one minute people were watching hockey in their living rooms, the next they heard something that sounded like a freight train near their homes.
Wall of ice destroys Manitoba homes, cottages – Manitoba – CBC News
h/t to Tom Nelson
That is what they get for building where they should not have!
This is my area. Lake Dauphin is large and shallow (and full of fish-hence the lakeshore development)). The ice was in a normal pre-ice-off state of weakness with considerable depth (volume) remaining. Strong north winds (80kmh with a fetch of 30+ miles) pushed the ice onto the south shore with tremendous force, piling it 20′ high in places. I have seen this a few times in my many years. Many of these homes have been in place for decades, and some of the trees are much older- all are gone. Nature has way of keeping us humble. Really this is nothing unusual, but the magnitude is unbelievable. These folks were just in the wrong place when everything fell in place.
“The ice was in a normal pre-ice-off state of weakness with considerable depth (volume) remaining.”
There you have it. It was rotten ice, clearly caused by global warming. 😉
Wow, so this is what 400 ppm CO2 can do! Somehow I had thought things were supposed to go the other way. I’ll have to read that theory again.
It was an ‘icenami’.
It’s the sun, stupid… Not humans.
The computer climate models predicted this would be a result of increased CO2…
Wake me when they stop believing in fantasies such as “miracles” and see the real picture – right place, right time.