Cut off: No access to Shoal Lake Cree Nation due to heavy rains

Heavy rain has led to washouts and water overflows on the access roads to the Shoal Lake Cree Nation, east of Prince Albert, Sask., where residents have been living under a local state of emergency for three days.

Work has been underway to repair the road. As of Thursday night, the community remained essentially isolated but with a plan to face any urgent needs. 

Earlier in the week, as a precaution, some chronically ill residents were moved to Prince Albert and other larger communities so their medical needs — such as dialysis — would not be affected.

People who were not in the community when the state of emergency was declared were contacted individually, and provided information about the situation. The community also made sure they had enough food for everyone who remained.

"We managed to get food from the local centres, the health centre [and] the school," Brad Cook, from the Shoal Lake emergency response team, said Thursday. "Then there's buildings available that we used for food services to feed people that were low on groceries."

Cook said that, beyond the need to repair the roads, there was no serious damage in the community due to flooding.

He said they have been through similar episodes in the past and were ready.

"We had this experience a couple years ago," he said.

The First Nation, with a population of around 1,000, is about 240 kilometres east of Prince Albert.