OTTAWA, Canada, April 25 (NNN-PETRA) – The small Muskoka-area community of Bracebridge, Ontario, has been declared a state of emergency, following days of heavy rain that have caused rivers and lakes to swell.
Authorities in the cottage town, about 200 kilometres north-east of Toronto, said, water volumes have ballooned beyond levels reached in 2013, the last time a state of emergency was declared, due to wet spring weather.
“We don’t want anybody getting hurt,” Mayor Graydon Smith said, in an interview with CBC Radio.
Smith told a news conference that, residents should not assume things will improve in the coming days, adding that, emergency service workers would be canvassing in the Springdale Shores area, along the North Branch Muskoka River, to help people there leave their homes.
The flood emergency was declared in order to get the public’s attention and make it clear that the situation is more than a typical spring thaw, Smith said.
“This is something way outside the normal margins. Unfortunately, we thought 2013 was a 100-year event, and here we are six years later,” he said.– NNN-PETRA
