Communities Along Ottawa River Declare Emergency Over Flood Risks

Communities in eastern Ontario have declared states of emergency over flood risks as water levels are expected to peak today on the Ottawa River.

Whitewater Region Mayor Neil Nicholson says water is backed up along most of the township’s riverbanks and five private roads were impassable to first responders as of Wednesday, when he declared the state of emergency.

Nicholson says there are around 100 homes in the township, near Pembrooke, Ont., “cut off or surrounded by water,” and some are starting to flood.

Downstream in Mattawa, sandbags have been set down around the town where Mayor Raymond Bélanger says he’s been meeting daily with the town’s emergency committee since declaring a state of emergency on Tuesday.

In a forecast Wednesday evening, the Ottawa River Regulation Planning Board said water levels are expected to peak today after parts of the Ottawa River basin were drenched last weekend and into Monday with 70 millimetres of rain, more than what typically falls across the entire month of April.

The board says water levels and flows are expected to stabilize into the weekend and “should start to decline slowly into next week.”