Rising waters force residents to leave Cumberland House

Page 4

Extremely wet weather across the Prairies this spring has caused flooding in a number of communities. Now the residents of Cumberland House and the adjacent Cumberland House Cree Nation are awaiting their turn.

Hundreds of Cumberland House residents were evacuated June 23 after the Saskatchewan River began flowing onto the only road leading into the community.

Most of the 2,000 residents have made their way to an emergency shelter in Prince Albert and other surrounding communities, where they are expected to stay for up to 10 days.

Malcolm French, a spokesman for the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, said that there are nurses on staff to look after medical needs of the evacuees, and three meals are provided daily to the 1,000 people who are registered in Prince Albert and about 300 who are staying at the Prince Albert campus of the Saskatchewan Institute of Applied Science and Technology.

"We are doing our best to make sure that people's basic needs are being met," French said.

The water level of the river could reach up to a maximum of 267.8 metres above sea level, French said. When he was interviewed by Sage on June 27, the water level had already gone up a couple of feet from where it was when the authority first identified that there was a risk at Cumberland House. The water level at that time was 266 metres above sea level. French added that nothing in the communities had flooded yet and he didn't expect that to happen until early July.

"Once the water level gets up to its height, it will probably stay there for a few days and then gradually decline," said French.

Approximately 175 people are still in Cumberland. About 15 to 20 of them are provincial officials who are doing some work to protect essential infrastructure, building dikes around the water treatment plant, the sewage pumping system and around the school on the reserve. Community members are also trying to build dikes to protect the lower-lying First Nation homes.

"They may not build a dike around every home but around as many as possible," said French.

Doug Johnson, director of basin operations for the Saskatchewan Watershed Authority, said Cumberland House residents will be allowed back into the community once it is safe to do so, but until they get the OK from Chief Walter Sewap and Mayor Dale McAuley, the people will have to stay in the shelters.