As Mackenzie River breakup continues, some N.W.T. communities watch for flooding

As the Mackenzie River continues its spring breakup through the Northwest Territories, people in the territory's Sahtu and Beaufort Delta regions are eyeing the river for signs of potential flooding.

So far, it's been a relatively quiet spring flooding season along the Mackenzie River.

Fort Simpson saw high water but it receded before officials needed to declare a state of emergency. Meanwhile, Wrigley and Tulita, the next two communities along the river's 1,700-kilometre path, saw the river break up without anything unusual happening.

But further north, conditions are developing that some river watchers say could lead to flooding.

In Tsiigehtchic, breakup is still a few days away and Mickey Andre's eyeing the river carefully. This year's conditions remind him of when he was a kid and the ice thundered and crashed as it broke up.

"It hasn't been this way in a long time," he said. "We've had quite a few mild winters, the last five years maybe 40 C at the coldest for a couple days, but this year we had 45 to 50 below.

"That really made a difference in our ice conditions," he said.

In order to get that ice moving, the water's got to come, so I'm thinking we're going to get a little bit of flooding- Mickey Andre,Tsiigehtchic, N.W.T.

Andre estimates the ice is at least a metre thick and says the river will build up a lot of power moving it out of the way. Creeks and lakes are still frozen solid and aren't running yet, he said.

"In order to get that ice moving, the water's got to come, so I'm thinking we're going to get a little bit of flooding," he said.

In Aklavik, some peopleraised this issue a few months ago, as spring flood preparations were just beginning, again pointing to the heavy snow and ice. The community sitson an elbow of thePeel Channel, which is just off the main river.

Since the ice hasn't started moving there, it's too soon to tell whether those predictions willcome true.

Meanwhile, in Norman Wells, Leon Andrew is seeing the ice just starting to clear from his home, about one kilometre from the main town, where the water is already higher than usual. Near the town, the ice hasn't moved.

"I can see most of the boat docks are still under water, the water is completely covering the three town docks," he said.

He says it's been a strange spring, with temperatures warming up, then cooling down again. It's taken a bit longer than usual for the snow to melt.

Over in Fort Good Hope, John T'seleie is watching an ice jam develop where the river bends just outside the community near the ramparts. Ice started moving Wednesday evening and there's a bit of open water near the community.

"Right now in front of the community there's three sheets of ice and that's blocking the movement," T'seleie said. "Downstream you can see the ice is stuck there, upstream you can see open water."

"The ice will be jammed upstream where the river bottlenecks."

Fort Good Hope isn't usually prone to flooding, with T'seleie saying he only remembers one or two floods happening in the last 50 years or so. But there's a section in town with about seven or eight households that is susceptible to flooding when the river gets high.

• FROM 2019| Breaking up isn't hard to do, especially when ice is low on the Mackenzie River

He's hoping it warms up over the next few days, the ice melts and the water can flow without an issue, continuing the Mackenzie's quiet spring breakup.

But as always, T'seleie and others on the Mackenzie River are watching, just to be sure.