Flooding in Ontario cottage country 'not near the end' as more rain on the way

Record-high floodwaters in Ontario's cottage country are starting tosubside, but officials say they are still on alertbecause more rain is expected to soak the regionlater this week.

Bracebridge, Ont.,has seen several days of intense flooding withthe north and south branches of the Muskoka River risingto "historic"levels. The north branch flows through the downtown core before it meets thesouth branch and drainsinto Lake Muskoka.

While water levels in the north branch have started to "dip quite a bit,"Bracebridge Mayor Graydon Smithsaidit's not yet clear whenthe south branch may begin to recede. He hopesa "crest might be somewhere in sight" for the lake by the end of the week.

"From the mouth of the river, having visited that area last night, it is an epic amount of water that's fully around a number of homes there and quite deep as the lake level rises. It's causing a lot of problems," he said.

Muskoka Lake has risen between four and five centimetresin the last 24 hours.

"This is still a multi-day event. We're not near the end but maybe the finish line is coming into sight for some areas," said Smith.

Between 25 and 30 millimetres of rain isexpected to fall Wednesday and continue into Thursday morning in the small community about 200kilometres northeast of Toronto, according to Environment Canada.

"I think, if we see a significant amount of rain in the next couple of days, we still wouldn't be back below the point when we declared the emergency," he said in an interview withCBC Radio's Metro Morningon Monday.

"The hope would be is that we don't see a big, big spike like we did with the rain on Friday where the system was completely saturated and full," he continued, noting more wet weather will prolong flooding.

Muskoka River above 2013 peak levels

Flows in local rivers strengthenedover the weekend, threatening homes and cottagesin Bracebridge.

Water levels in both branches of the river and Lake Muskokapeaked on Friday, breaking records set in 2013the last time the community dealt with a significant flood.

"This is a historical event," Smith said."There's no question about it, we've exceeded 2013 levels on all branches of the river and into the lake now, and the duration of[the flooding]is also expected to be longer than we've seen in the past."

Bracebridge is one of several cottage country communitiesthat havedeclaredan emergencyover the last week due to record-breaking flood conditions. The others include Huntsville, Minden Hills and Muskoka Lakes.

The mayor of Huntsville has said the situation there has started to improve, with several local lakes and rivers cresting. Downstream in Bracebridge, however, levels in the south branch of the MuskokaRiver continue to rise.

Muskoka Lakes is the latest community to declare a state of emergency. It did so on Sunday whena worrying amount of water upstream moveddown. Water levels in its namesake lake have risenby 12 centimetres over the past 24 hours since Saturday.

Agroup of reservists with the Canadian Armed Forces fanned out acrossBracebridgeon Sunday afternoon to fill and distribute sandbags, and help authorities travel acrosswater-ladenroads that are currently impassable to most passenger vehicles.

"People are burnt out from working so hard that we felt we really needed to go one step beyond community support and call in the military who can provide sustained and ongoing support," Smith said.

Currently about 60 troopsare performing flood mitigation work in the town's hardest-hit areas that sit adjacent to the Muskoka River.

Authorities are putting in a "big, big fight" to ward off floodwaters in this "trouble spot," Smith said.

Despite a more promising forecast over the next two days, Smithpointedout there's already a troublesomeamount of water upstream filteringdown along the bloated Muskoka River.

"The water is still going up in the lake and affectinga lot of people there," the mayorexplained.

Some 45,000 sandbags have been distributed, so far, filled mostly by civilian volunteers from Bracebridge and the surrounding area.

Smith also cautioned that manyroads in the community are washed-out.Seventeen local roads are currently completelyclosed to traffic.

"We're trying to assess and fix roads as quickly as possible," he said.

Thirty more reservists are headed to Bracebridge this afternoonto join hundreds of civilian volunteers in filling and stacking thousands of sandbags at properties threatened by floodwaters, Smith said during a news conference held Monday.

Residents are fatigued becausemany havebeen working around the clock to wardoff rising river levels.

"People are literally catching an hour or two of sleep at a time because they want to check on those pumps, they want to make sure the sandbags are holding, they want to make sure the water isn't coming up," he said.

Smith said he doesn't anticipate that any more residents will be asked toleave their homes voluntarily in the coming days.