HAY RIVER - Hay River has been spared flooding damage this year. Water from the Hay River began to rise on the April 24 to 25 weekend as the ice started to move.

A truck makes its way through a section of a water-covered street on Hay River's Vale Island on April 25. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

The water levels reached their peak at about 6 p.m. on April 25, said Kevin Wallington, the vice-chair of the Hay River emergency measures organization (EMO) committee. Wallington said there were no reports of damage to property and no evacuations on Vale Island, which includes Old Town and West Channel.

"We lucked out this year," he said.

However, on the Hay River Reserve side of the river, flooding covered a section of the road leading to Old Village and the nearby Anglican Cemetery for the third year in a row.

About 15 residents of Old Village were evacuated as a precaution on April 24 and returned to their homes on April 26. The evacuees stayed with relatives or at the Chief Lamalice Complex.

Victoria St. Jean, volunteer co-ordinator with the flood watch for K'atlodeeche First Nation, said Old Village residents have been evacuated every year since flooding in 2008.

The low-lying section of the road to the Old Village usually gets covered by water and needs to be raised, she said. "Until then, we're always going to have to evacuate them."

That low-lying section of road is what allows the water to reach the Anglican Cemetery, where some spirit houses were moved off graves.

In Hay River, at the water's highest on April 25, it covered low-lying sections of several Old Town streets closest to the river and some docks, such as the Porrit Landing public fishing dock.

Barricades were set up to warn people about the flooded streets. Local residents were still permitted to drive through the water, said Wallington.

"It was not to the point we felt it was dangerous," he said.

There was no flooding in the West Channel area.

This year's breakup was relatively early. It usually occurs around the first week of May.

Wallington said a checkpoint was established near the airport on Highway 2 from about 6 p.m. to midnight on April 25. Only residents of Vale Island were allowed into the area. Wallington said the checkpoint was a precaution in case the water surged.

"It could create quite a hazard," he explained. "There could be four or five vehicles trying to get out all at once from one point."

The Town of Hay River declared a state of local emergency at 6 p.m. on April 25.

"We did that as a precaution because the water can come up pretty quickly," said Terry Molenkamp, the senior administrative officer with the municipality.

Molenkamp said the state of local emergency is declared just about every year in case anything goes wrong during spring breakup.

This year's relatively uneventful breakup did not come as a surprise.

At a flood preparedness meeting on April 20, residents of Vale Island were told there were positive signs that breakup might not be too bad - ice and snow loads on the river were not as high as in previous years, there was not a lot of snow left in the bush of the river's watershed, and the weather had been co-operating.