A Flood Watch issued by the Essex Region Conservation Authority could impact a section of Windsor that's under the microscope already.
The strong Northeast wind in the forecast will create elevated levels in Lake St. Clair and into the Detroit River, which could cause problems along Little River.
Winds are expected to have sustained speeds of 20 to 30 km/hour with potential gusts up to 40 km/hour.
ERCA Director of Watershed Management Services, Tim Byrne, says water levels in the Great Lakes are at the same historic highs they were in the 1980s.
He explains the current level of Little River is only about a foot below the top of the sheet steel wall along the corridor.
Little River running through Derwent Park near Lauzon Rd. and Stella Cr. after Saturdays Earth Day Riverbed Clean-up. (Photo by AM800's Gord Bacon)
Byrne says the conditions in the forecast increase the potential of flooding in that area with wind pushing in and setting up water levels artificially higher, river flows are still occurring.
He says the breaches in the berm could prove a significant problem today: "it's a grave concern for some of the activities that have taken place over time on the dykes along Little River people have innocently thought they were undertaking yard work and landscaping but that's damage the flood protection dykes along Little River"
Little River encroachments (by AM800's Peter Langille)
Byrne says the city's engineering department has an emergency plan for the worst of the breaches with sand-bagging and other measures.
He points out the dykes along the Little River were built in the 1980s to create protection against flooding under the same high water levels we have today.
Byrne says they protect between 6 and 8000 homes in east Windsor.
The Flood Watch adds that due to elevated Lake Erie water levels and forecast winds, there is also a possibility of flooding, shoreline erosion and damaging waves on the east side of Pelee Island and the southeast shoreline of Leamington between Wheatley Harbour and the point.