Flooding in Aberdeen, Sask. forced the town to declare a state of emergency over the weekend

Some residents of Aberdeen used a kayak to access a street on Saturday. (Courtesy: Hailee Friesen's security camera)

A Saskatchewan town northeast of Saskatoon declared a state of emergency on Saturday over flooding concerns.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, the Town of Aberdeen said it is now working alongside the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency and the RM of Aberdeen to mitigate more water building up within town limits.

The RM of Aberdeen said in its own post crews have been working for the past week to avoid major flooding stemming from runoff caused by a quick snowmelt. Temperatures climbed close to 20 degrees on Saturday in the area.

As of Sunday, the RM said Neudorf Road between Freisen Interstate and River Park School Road, Smuts Road between Laniwci Road and Fish Creek Road, Aberdeen transfer station road and Wruck Road between Highway 41 and the Clarkboro Ferry grid have all been closed for the public’s safety.

The RM said flooded or washed-out roads can be reported by emailing them at [e-mail] or by calling the division councillor.

In its last runoff forecast, the province’s water regulator said above average runoff was expected in areas between Saskatoon and Regina as well as north of Saskatoon including the Aberdeen region.

The state of emergency was lifted on Monday after the province provided equipment to dig up ditches, expand culverts and create berms to mitigate flooding.

Kayaking down the street

With parts of the town nearly underwater on the weekend some some residents of Aberdeen tried to make the best of the unfortunate situation.

Home security footage showed people kayaking down the flooded Blake Crescent, which was renamed “Blake Lake” on Saturday.

“I turned on my security camera and I saw my neighbours, a few houses down, they had this little kid kayak. They’re going up and down the street,” Hailee Friesen told CTV News, laughing.

“I mean, make the most of it with a kayak.”

Aberdeen’s Mayor Ryan White says as far as they know no homes have been damaged.

“We were very lucky. As far as I know, we didn’t sustain damage to any homes. We managed to stop that,” White said.

“We do have damage obviously to culverts, roadways, that we’ll have to go back and assess.”

Aberdeen, Sask. is about 41 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.