![\"leighton-avenue-winnipeg-flood\"](\"https:\/\/www.livabl.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/leighton-avenue-winnipeg-flood.jpg\")
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nNormally, the Red River runs right past Leighton Avenue, but the street’s proximity to the waterway led to its flooding.<\/p>\n
Kingston Crescent<\/h2>\n
Kingston Crescent suffered the same fate.<\/p>\n Some 1,200,000 sandbags were airlifted to Winnipeg to help in the flood containment effort, according to the CBC Digital Archives<\/a>.<\/p>\n Water reached a record height of 30.2 feet in Winnipeg,\u00a0according to the Red Cross<\/a>, which the city called in for help.<\/p>\n With water levels dangerously high, residents along Scotia Street were rescued from their waterlogged homes and ushered towards drier land.<\/p>\n Flooding around Scotia Street began in the third week of April, according to the Manitoba Historical Society.<\/p>\n In all, the flood destroyed 10,000 homes across Winnipeg, including the district of St. Vital (above), and it damaged another 5,000 buildings, according to the province.<\/p>\n The Manitoba Legislative building was one structure that survived the flood.<\/p>\n Destruction from the flood caused damages to the tune of $125.5 million at the time. Today, that would be roughly $1 billion, the province figures.<\/p>\n A dike had been set up to protect the Wildwood Park community from rising water levels, but by the morning of May 6th, it failed and the area was evacuated, according to a first-hand account<\/a>.<\/p>\n Until the 1979 “Mississauga Miracle,” in which 218,000 people were cleared out of the GTA suburb after a train carrying chemicals exploded, the 1950 Winnipeg flood was the largest mass evacuation in Canadian history, with 100,000 people leaving the flooded landscape.<\/p>\n A wall of sandbags protected St. Boniface Sanitorium, today a historic site, from flood waters that surrounded it.<\/p>\n During the flood, Winnipeggers rowed boats down city streets.<\/p>\n Boats were also an ideal mode of transport for getting around the University of Manitoba’s campus at the time.<\/p>\n Though the flood made for some dramatic scenes, it only claimed one life, Lawson Ogg. He had been trying to repair a basement pump when waters rushed in, drowning him.<\/p>\n The Red River was at flood levels for 51 days.<\/p>\n<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nPoint Douglas<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: City of Winnipeg<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nSt. Vital<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: City of Winnipeg<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nScotia Street<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nScotia Street<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nWinnipeg<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nManitoba Legislative Building<\/h2>\n
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Forks<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: City of Winnipeg<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nWildwood<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nWildwood<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nSt. Boniface<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nLombard Avenue<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nUniversity of Manitoba<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: University of Manitoba<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nRiverview<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: City of Winnipeg<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nRiverview<\/h2>\n
<\/a>Photo: Stan Milosevic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nA Winnipeg Free Press front page<\/h2>\n