KENORA— In a new recent release, the City of Kenora is recommending that residents who live in the flooding zone areas evacuate their homes immediately. Repairs have been completed at the intersection of East Melick Road and Essex Road to ensure that people can evacuate.
According to the city announcement, “The Lake of the Woods and Winnipeg River systems are above the 95th percentile meaning that there is more water now than there has been in 95 per cent of the years that the Lake of the Woods Control Board has tracked these systems. This is causing back-flow into the Black Sturgeon systems, creating overland flooding. Kenora and surrounding area is currently in a flood warning according to the Ontario Flood Information website.”
In addition, the city notice indicates that the outlook for the weeks to come is that Lake of the Woods will continue to rise until local tributaries drop significantly. The Winnipeg River level in Ontario will rise with the lake level and there are expecting weeks of high water ahead.
The City of Kenora urges residents in highly affected areas to evacuate or be prepared to evacuate on very short notice. As water levels continue to rise, they inform residents that there is no way to accurately predict how quickly roads can become unsafe and impassable for residents. This may leave portions of the population cut-off from essential services including emergency services.
As a final note of important information, the Emergency Operations Centre stated that it wants to, “Ensure that residents understand that should they choose to stay in their homes, and the road becomes unusable, emergency services will not be available to assist should there be an emergency. The safest thing to do is to evacuate now and prepare for the potential of your access being unavailable to your home.”
The City of Kenora has closed Coker Road at Kelly Road as this road is now unstable. Motorists should not travel on water covered roads and are encouraged to use an alternative route if at all possible to avoid the unstable roads.
