Evacuate homes soon, Hay River mayor warns some residents

People living in the Vale Island and West Channel areas of Hay River, N.W.T., were on evacuation alert Tuesday night as the risk of flooding rose as part of the annual spring breakup.

In a release issued at 4:45 p.m. MT, Mayor Jean-Marc Miltenberger urged residents in those areas not to spend the night in their homes.

Miltenberger told CBC News he is worried about a significant amount of ice and water that is expected to flow downstream on the Hay River toward the community of 3,650.

Miltenberger said the flooding, which is expected to be worse than last year's spring floods, could begin as early as Tuesday night or Wednesday.

A massive ice jam, located at a gorge on the Hay River between Enterprise and Louise Falls, has been building up for the past three days and may release in the next 24 to 48 hours.

The town's East Channel and West Channel are already full of ice. The town could be flooded with water and ice in as little as two hours after the ice jam frees up.

Should the ice jam release Tuesday night or Wednesday, sirens and horns will sound, and residents on Vale Island and West Channel must evacuate their homes immediately, according to Miltenberger's release.

Local emergency officials will not go door to door should the evacuation order come into effect, given the expected speed of the water and ice that will be coming.

River breaking up slowly

Fay Hicks, a University of Alberta professor tracking the annual river breakup, told CBC News that the breakup has been moving extremely slowly this year.

"The best-case scenario is that we get some nice, hot sunny weather and it melts out that jam in the gorge. But I would say with the amount of ice there, it would take a lot of time for that to happen," said Hicks, who teaches hydro-technical engineering.

"If it lets go, I would say I can't see how there wouldn't be flooding."

Late Monday, Miltenberger advised people living on Vale Island and the West Channel to prepare to evacuate their homes on short notice.

'A ton of ice'

"Literally a ton of ice," Miltenberger said of the ice jam, after surveying the river by helicopter.

"There is significantly thick ice pans and water moving them in the direction of Hay River, so we are going to be in for some high levels of water and ice flows."

While people living in Hay River are keeping a close eye for flooding this spring, a BBC film crew is also watching the ice and water along the river.

The film crew, which is shooting a sequel to BBC's Planet Earth television series, is capturing the role that ice breakup plays in the planet's ecology.

The crew was camped out for about a week by Alexandra Falls as it began to thaw and break up.

"It was one of the most impressive things I've ever seen in my life. It was quite extraordinary," said Mark Linfield, who is in charge of the crew.

"We had a waterfall which was basically locked in ice with a big snowy lip, and we were standing there as three kilometres of ice came overtop of it and smashed the lip off. It's pretty damn impressive."

The television series, to be titled Frozen Planet, will focus on the Earth's north and south polar regions.