Yellowknife (Mar 22/06) - "It's an interesting start to the carnival," was all John Dalton, this year's Caribou Carnival co-ordinator, could say as water flooded across the Frame Lake site late Tuesday afternoon.

This worker attempts to stop the overflow of water coming from a hole drilled for power poles. The sunk pole didn't freeze properly, allowing water to rush up and flood the Caribou Carnival site. - Tara Kearsey/NNSL photo

Two days ago, wooden power poles were inserted into holes drilled through the ice near the former Gerry Murphy Arena site to provide power for this weekend's 51st annual carnival.

The water in the holes was supposed to freeze overnight, but unseasonably warm weather combined with the weight of wet snow, caused the water to well up out of one of the holes around 3 p.m. yesterday.

Now carnival organizers are scrambling to build a new site on the lake in time for this weekend's festivities.

"The site is lost, but we're still going to have a carnival," Dalton insisted.

Crews working on clearing the site used a bulldozer to move snow off the ice in an attempt to relieve the pressure caused by the flooding.

Workers also tried to plug the hole around the pole with a fibre-glass like material.

Dalton said the present site will now be part of the parking lot and the new one will be moved 300 metres south, near Matonabee Street.

Though the layout of the carnival will have to be scrapped, Dalton said none of the will be cancelled.

Dalton said everyone will still enter the site as they normally do from the City Hall parking lot.

"We still have three feet of ice thickness on the lake. This isn't a big problem, we've been doing this for more than 30 years"

Dog Derby organizer James Pugsley was at the site and said he is confident everything will be worked out by the opening this Friday.

"This is going to be a great weekend watching the dogs and going to the carnival."

Snowcross co-ordinator, Jeff Pitre shares Pugsley's confidence.

"Unless our site near the museum causeway is overflowing, I don't see a reason to move the location of the snowcross." But he added the final decision will be made after organizers plow the site.

By 5 p.m. yesterday, the Yellowknife Fire Department hadn't heard of the overflow conditions but planned to go down to Frame Lake today to test the ice.

"I'm sure there's lot of ice," said deputy chief Chucker Dewer.

The carnival is scheduled to run this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

- With files from NNSL staff