Prairie residents in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, already struggling with severe flooding, were hit with a spring snowstorm Tuesday, causing at least eight municipalities including a First Nations reserve to declare a state of emergency.

It is forecasted that the storm may bring up to 25 centimetres of snow to parts of western Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan.

Residents of Radisson, Sask., spent Tuesday shovelling and sandbagging in an attempt to save their community.

“If that road goes out here, and I hope it doesn’t, if it goes … the town is gone,” homeowner Rick Hawes said.

In Winnipeg the waters of the Red River were rising so quickly, homeowners at risk were told to sandbag their properties.

“The water is really coming in and we don’t know what is going to happen in the next day,” one resident said.

And along the Assiniboine River there’s growing concern that ice jams are adding to the sudden increasing water levels.

A blockade mounted along the Assiniboine River at the mouth of the Portage Diversion was deemed illegal by Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger Tuesday.

Selinger said the blockade, which delayed the opening of the channel by 12 hours, put lives at risk and threatened to destroy rural areas near Winnipeg with flooding.

Steve Ashton, the minister responsible for emergency measures, said the blockade was “unacceptable.”

“It was unacceptable for people to be in that area. It was unacceptable for them to stop the portage diversion,” he said.

Dozens of protesting farmers who had been blocking the mouth of the Portage Diversion earlier this week removed the blockade after they were promised a meeting with the province to discuss compensation for their flooded fields.

They said they will not interfere with efforts to fight the flood again.

Farmers began moving their farm equipment at approximately 10:30 p.m. on Monday after the province agreed to the meeting, details of which are still being determined.

Government spokesperson Jean-Marc Prevost says the blockade was cleared just in time, as a buildup of ice was approaching the diversion.

“This evening an ice-pack tracking toward the diversion threatened to damage the flood infrastructure of the diversion itself, which protects the city of Winnipeg…. The operation of the diversion reservoir is now expected to break-up the tracking ice-pack,” the province said in a statement.

The opening of diversion came as sandbagging efforts were already underway in south Winnipeg. The city on Monday delivered 6,500 sandbags to seven low-lying areas south of the city.

Earlier on Monday, a group of angry farmers set up the blockade at the diversion which redirects flood water from the Assiniboine River to Lake Manitoba. The situation deteriorated after officials warned the diversion would be opened anyway, and their machines would be swept away. Farmers then moved in and began occupying the area.

According to the farmers, they were not properly compensated when the diversion was last used in 2011. Although the diversion prevented communities downstream from being submerged, nearby farm land was inundated. Some farmers say their land has not returned to normal and they are still suffering the consequences.

The opening of the diversion came after the government was granted an injunction by the courts Monday evening, allowing them to call in the RCMP to remove the protestors.

Ashton said the province’s only priority was to guarantee the protection of nearby communities after warmer weekend temperatures caused rivers to crest in Manitoba.

Rising rivers and streams washed out rural roads and highways and the flood was even blamed for a train derailment near the province’s border.

High-water advisories were issued for smaller rivers, creeks, and drains in southeast and south-central Manitoba, as forecasters said that warmer temperatures would cause tributaries and drains to experience rapidly rising water and ice jams.

With a report from CTV News’ Jill Macyshon and files from The Canadian Press