As Highway 1 flooded, former N.W.T. resident drove through water to pick up Hay River dogs

Catherine Heron narrowly missed the closure of Highway 1, south of Enterprise, on Sunday as she headed for home with her best friend's dogs in tow.

It was before noon and the former N.W.T. resident was driving back to Edmonton after picking the two pups up outside the flood-ravaged town of Hay River.

As she neared Alexandra Falls,water pooled like a lake and poured across the road, rushing into the ditch on the other side.

It was a whirlwind 20-hour round tripfor Heron she'd driven up on Saturday with a load of fans, dehumidifiers and other equipment to help her friend eventually dry out her home,and the road was already bad then.

"When I got to one spot going in, I sat there and I looked at it, thinking, 'Oh, my Lord, I've got to drive through this?' Little scary, because you can see part of the road was actually being washed out," she recalled.

The drive home Sunday morning was worse.

Flooding disrupts N.W.T.'s highway connection south

2 years ago

Duration 1:26

Heavy flooding temporarily shut down N.W.T.'s Highway #1 Sunday. Catherine Heron shot this video near Alexandra Falls just before noon. "I'm grateful I got out when I could," she said. The highway re-opened Monday morning.

Heron made it through that stretch of road Sunday shortly before the N.W.T.'s infrastructure department officially closed it, citing high water levels. She said in all the years she lived in the N.W.T., she'd never seen anythinglike it before.

"There was endless waterflow, and my thought was, 'I'm not sure that they will get this fixed,'" she said.

The road remained closed until Monday morning, when it partially reopened to single-lane traffic with traffic control on site.

Heron, who used to be the band manager for K'atl'odeeche First Nation before she moved south,will be caring for the two dogs indefinitely, until her friend can fix her home.

On Sunday, Highway 1 was closed in two spots due to high water from the border to Enterprise, and from the junction of Highway 3 to kilometre 238 (where the access road to Sambaa K'e is). The latter stretch of road remains closed.

Sambaa K'e itself experienced a flash flood Sunday afternoon, though community members say waters have since receded.

On Sunday, the access road from Highway 1 to Kakisaalso reopened. That road had been closed since May 13 due to high water levels.