Southern Lakes levels continue to rise

Just as residents around the Yukon's Southern Lakes thought water levels had reacheda peak,even morerain hasraisedthem to another record high.

Water levels at Marsh Lake averaged at 657.288 metres above sea level on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to figures from Yukon Energy Corp. on Wednesday.

Yukon government forecasters tracking the water levels had hoped the water peaked around July 31 at about 657.274 metres.

Government hydrologist Rick Janowicz told CBC News that the new level at Marsh Lake was several millimetres higher than last week's "peak" level.

"I have to say, though, that it is largely wind generated the lake has not yet responded to[Monday's] rainfall," Janowicz said Tuesday.

Janowicz said he believes water levels in Marsh Lake could rise by another two or three centimetres over the next day or so.

In Marsh Lake, resident Don Hutton said he and his neighbours have been working around the clock for the past month to keep their homes from washing away.

Hutton has a concrete and sandbag dike protecting his home, but he said he's worried high winds could bring waves over the dikes, seeping into his home.

"Everybody, I think, in town seems to think that we reached the peak and now we go into maintenance mode," Hutton, a 66-year-old retiree, said Tuesday.

"Man, we didn't. We're a moment away, one wave away, from us back into [an] emergency situation."

Emergency fire crews who spent the last month building the temporary dikes started leaving the Marsh Lake area this week. But crew boss Scott Hamilton said it doesn't mean they are abandoning the flood zone.

"There is seepage through the walls, but it is now the responsibility of the residents to put in their own sump pumps and keep up with what water is coming in," Hamilton said. "But we will keep an eye on this."