After several tense hours late Monday night and early Tuesday morning, the situation has stabilized along Winkler's south dike at Highway 32. Describing what happened, Winkler Mayor Martin Harder indicated he's never seen culverts buckle the way the ones running underneath Highway 32 did as they faced an onslaught of water water running through the spillway on the city's south end..

"They actually came out of the road in on the West side of the road, and buckled up, which prevented the water from flowing through Highway 32," he explained. "Obviously, with the amount of water coming down the channel, it backed up very quickly, and spilled over into the field (south of the spillway), and thankfully they were able to remove those damaged culverts to allow the water to flow again, basically saving the City of Winkler, because that south end of town would quickly be bubbling if that water would have come over on the north side of the dike."

Harder said Highway 32 has definitely been compromised, and it will take time for engineers to assess the severity of the damage, and determine what repairs are required. Residents can expect it to be closed at the city's south end for the next several days.

out there for this coming weekend. If we're going to get a lot of rain, and we're going to get the temperatures they're talking about, and the snow melts on the escarpment, it could be worse."

Harder notes the community is not out of danger yet, but hopefully can get through this weekend, stressing overland flood warnings continue.