/State of emergency in Minden Hills
Anson Street is one of a number of roads the Township of Minden Hills has closed to all but local traffic. /CHAD INGRAM Staff

State of emergency in Minden Hills

For the third time in six years the Township of Minden Hills has declared a state of emergency as the Gull RIver floods.

"Weather and above-normal snow-pack has led to rising water levels that we've experienced and seen of over 35 centimetres in the last four days" Mayor Brent Devolin said as he declared the state of emergency on the afternoon of Wednesday April 24.

Declaring a state of emergency allows municipalities to access aid from upper levels of government.

"The potential exists to reach 2017 levels" Devolin added. Minden Hills entered states of emergency in the springs of 2017 and 2013 respectively with the water from the 2013 flood leaving portions of the village of Minden underwater for three weeks.

The township's emergency operationscommittee first convened on the morning of April 23.

“We will be meeting daily” Devolintold the paper. “We're expecting levels to continue to rise for thenext 48 hours.”

The Township of Minden Hills has closedMcKnight Drive Anson Street Orde Street Invergordon Avenue St. Germaine Street Spring Valley Road Ritchie Falls RoadHospitality Road Mark Twain Road and Milburn Road to all but localresidential traffic and the Salerno Lake Road bridge had been closedto all traffic.

“We would ask people who don't livein those areas to respect that” Devolin said adding it waspossible that bylaw staff or the OPP would be called onnon-residential traffic.

There are washouts in some areas.

Portions of the Minden Riverwalk aswell as the boardwalk and sections of Anson Street and InvergordonAvenue were submerged on Tuesday morning and township work crewsused machinery to dislodge a tree from under theSunnybrook Bridge in downtown Minden.

Sandbags are available at the S.G.Nesbitt Memorial Arena the sand dome at 4564 County Road 121 nearKinmount and at Furnace Falls Park off County Road 503. Residentscan find updated flood information on the township's website at www.mindenhills.ca or bycalling the township office at 705-286-1260 ext. 211 or asking for PaulaStamp. After hours call 1-866-856-3247. Devolin said residents who live in areas of historicalflooding will receive door-to-door visits from township staff.

Local politicians continue to havedaily conference calls with reps from Parks Canada which operatesthe Trent Severn Waterway and the MNRF the provincial floodadvisory body. The water from more than 25 reservoir and flow-through lakes in Haliburton that are part of the feeder system for the TSW flows through the channel of the Gull River through downtown Minden. Parks Canada announced Tuesday it was increasing outflows out of Horseshoe Lake north of Minden.