By Ragnar Haagen

Many roads still impassable into James Smith Cree Nation

Aug 17, 2012 | 6:36 AM

There is certainly no one praying for rain at the James Smith Cree Nation. The area has seen 142 mm of rain fall over the past two months, causing roads to flood and drinking water to become contaminated.

The situation has become so bad that they have declared a state of emergency after a child from the community became sick from drinking contaminated water and had to be air lifted to hospital.

Most of the flooding has been concentrated around the southern portion of the reserve as numerous roads have become impassable. When coupled with the massive flooding from last year, the roads have literally begun to melt away into mud and little else.

However the local weather forecast is calling for sunshine into the foreseeable future, which is good news for residents and for Larry Zadvorny, an emergency services officer on the scene with the government.

“The situation is more stable than it was over the last little while. With the rains we had earlier in the week, it caused a lot more grief with regards to roads,” Zadvorny said.

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“We’re working right now to move some of that water and prepare it so we can rebuild those roads.”

They are using pumps to move that water into an adjacent slough to the south that is larger and slopes away from the problem.

“We’ve got one pump that has been operational here for the past few days. There are two more pumps that have been ordered and I believe are on their way now,” he said.

After the water has been diverted, the next step will be to rebuild some of the roads. They are still unsure how many roads will be rebuilt in total, as they are concentrating on the hardest hit areas for now, with the intent to build the roads higher to accommodate any future flooding.

Building the roads higher and stronger is exactly what Alvin Moostoos wants to see happen. He operates the medical taxi on the reserve and says all this flooding has taken a toll on his service.

“It’s been affecting me quite a bit actually, it’s taking me a long time to go around to Melfort or Prince Albert or Saskatoon,” he explained, adding that his business has actually picked up since the flooding began.

“We’re behind on our appointment times because we have to take the long way around and I guess it’s more of a headache but I think if the roads get fixed up it will be a lot better. Before the rains came, we could go straight and it would be no problem.”

Aside from the roads, Moostoos has been lucky, the boil water advisory hasn’t affected him. But it has affected many others; almost everyone who has water or sewage cisterns is under the advisory after slough water invaded tanks.

According to Zadvorny, around 170 people have been evacuated from the area, including many of the elders. The band’s own independent engineer suggested repairs could cost over $3.2-million to meet safety standards.

rhaagen@panow.com

Twitter: @ragnarhaagen