Residents asked to flee Newfoundland town as nearby river overflows

The Exploits River in central Newfoundland is shown in this handout photo, creeping toward Melissa Mercer's backyard in Badger, N.L., on Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - Melissa Mercer

Badger, N.L., resident Melissa Mercer typically describes where she lives by saying the Exploits River is in her backyard. But as of Thursday night, the river was “literally” in her backyard, she said in an interview.

The Badger town council ordered Mercer and dozens of her neighbours to leave their homes late Thursday as water spilled over the Exploits’ riverbanks and crept into the community. Mercer is now stuffed into a hotel room in nearby Grand Falls-Windsor with her two large Great Pyrenees dogs, Apollo and Leya.

The town is prone to flooding and residents watch the river swell every year, she said.

“It rises and falls, it rises and falls,” Mercer said. “It’s never really come up in my backyard, and it is up to my dogs’ kennel at the moment.”

Badger is home to about 685 people and it sits in the confluence of three rivers, the largest of which is the Exploits River. It stretches about 246 kilometres from Beothuk Lake, in the central region of Newfoundland, to the Bay of Exploits off the northeast coast of the island.

It is the second longest river in the province, after the Churchill River in Labrador.

Officials have been warning of ice jams and flooding in Badger since last week. Mercer said monitoring crews have been going past her house for the past few days, checking the water levels every hour. Ice had begun to pile up in part of the Exploits River, blocking the flow of water, she said. With nowhere else to go, the water breached the riverbanks.

The town said in a Facebook post Thursday that officials would continue checking the water levels while police and members of the fire department patrolled the streets. It asked the displaced residents to check in at the local community centre.

The provincial government said on social media that it was monitoring the situation following the evacuation.

Images on social media from Thursday night and Friday morning appear to show water seeping into backyards and residential streets.

Mercer said she has a concrete foundation and basement, and that she had just pulled up her basement floor in order to replace it. If the water was going to get in, at least it wouldn’t be ruining a good floor, she said.

Other evacuees she has spoken to are primarily concerned about where they will stay, since they, too, have dogs, she said. But people are worried they’ll find damage when they’re allowed to return home, whenever that may be.

“It is a big river and anything can happen,” she said. “You don’t really know with Mother Nature.”