Lake of the Woods water levels remain high as area deals with heavy rains this week
CBC
Heavy rainfall in the Kenora area has slowed the drop in the Lake of the Woods water level.
Municipalities in the Lake of the Woods watershed struggled with heavy flooding in recent months. The Lake of the Woods Secretariat, in its most recent update, stated the lake's level remains above its 2014 peak, but is below the record level set in July 1950.
With recent rainfall in the area, and forecasted precipitation in the coming days, the lake is expected to rise slightly before resuming its drop, the secretariat said.
"The last three or four days, we've had some really heavy rainfall come in with lots of lightning and thunder and really vicious downpours for maybe five to 10 minutes," said Dave Pratt, the deputy fire chief in Kenora, on Wednesday. "It's short-lived, but it certainly comes down hard."
Pratt said water levels in the community remain high, and crews are patrolling Kenora to monitor for flooding.
"There's a couple locations where it's kind of teetering, whether we're going to have to close the road or raise it," he said. "We were kind of hoping with the hot temperatures and, obviously, just the natural flow of the water, the water levels might have gone down."
"But I would say ... they're as high as they've ever been, unfortunately."
Kenora was among several communities in the region that were under rainfall warnings on Tuesday, along with Dryden, Sioux Lookout and Red Lake.
A section of Highway 17 near Richard Lake, east of Kenora, had been closed due to a washout.
Pratt said Kenora firefighters were dispatched to the site at about 4 a.m. Wednesday, and while there were no injuries, several vehicles were caught in the washout.
Meanwhile, a section of Highway 71 by Lynx Clan Drive in Sioux Narrows was also closed due to water over the road, the ministry said.
Sioux Narrows and Nestor Falls were hit by a storm on Sunday night.
Talking to CBC News on Tuesday, Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Steven Flisfeder said the agency hadn't yet received too much information about that incident outside of what had been posted on social media.
"We saw some trees down and hydro poles down," he said.
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