Areas near the Sault dealing with major flooding issues

A trifecta of weather-related issues caused big flood fears this week for two rural communities located near Sault Ste. Marie.

A trifecta of weather-related issues has left two rural communities outside of the Sault with significant flooding.

Many roads are closed, and even more houses are flooded in Goulais River and Searchmont due to a combination of heavy rain, warm temperatures and a lot of leftover snow.

“It has been worse than it has been in the last few years,” said Kris Rooley, Goulais River fire chief.

“The last big flood we’ve seen like this was 2017. And even 2017, I don’t think it was … this bad. There’s a lot of roads that are completely underwater right now.”

A handful of roads have had to be closed due to exceptionally high water levels, and Rooley said dozens of locals have been affected.

“There are people that aren’t able to go to their jobs,” he said.

“There’s definitely people that are going to have damage to their homes ... Some basements that are flooded out. And I don’t mean water in the basement. I mean flooded out (with the) crawlspace underwater. There’s a couple of people that I’ve seen that step out their front door into a canoe to get out onto dry land.”

Fire crews have notified all residents in the area about the dangers they could face and are offering any assistance they can.

Right now, they’re preparing for any emergency calls that may come in.

“The big one is emergency response,” Rooley said.

“All of these streets that are underwater right now are not accessible by ambulance or fire truck. They’re accessible by boat. So if you have a medical emergency or a fire emergency, we have to go in and potentially stabilize a patient. Bring the patient out to the ambulance on the dry land in the boat.”

• Download the CTV News app now
• Get local breaking news alerts

Rooley said water levels are going down in much of the Goulais River and Searchmont area.

But he said there is still a lot of snow in the nearby bush, and with double-digit temperatures and roughly 20 millimetres of rain expected by day’s end, he worries the flooding could get worse over the coming days.