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TTHENAAGO/NAHANNI BUTTE
There is talk in Nahanni Butte about moving the community across the river to keep residents safe from future floods but Chief Clayton Konisenta said he doesn’t expect anything will come of it.

There has been talk around Nahanni Butte about moving the community across the river to keep residents safe from future floods., such as the one this past summer. - NNSL file photo

"It's probably just more or less talk. People frustrated, angry and don't know what else to say or what to think of the flood, I guess," he said.

This summer, the majority of residents in Nahanni Butte were evacuated after rising water levels on the South Nahanni River flooded the area. Months later, the community is still working to clean up the damage from the flood.

Konisenta said the subject of moving the town has come up a few times and he would consider it if everyone agreed to it, though he doesn’t think that will happen.

George Tsetso, one of the residents who chose not to evacuate during the flood, said moving the community just doesn’t seem feasible.

"It's just going to cost us a lot of money. I know the government right now they're pretty strapped as it is and to come up with the amount of money to move 32 houses and a power plant, and a store, it doesn't make sense,” he said. "I think people are just grasping at straws."

Instead, he suggested the government look at moving the power plant to higher ground.

"The flood wasn't that bad … The only reason people left is because there was no power," he said, adding future houses should be built in the higher areas so they are less likely to be affected by flood waters. "We have an area in the community that's higher. We can move the community up from now on.”

Still, the idea of moving Nahanni Butte elsewhere isn’t completely out of the question if history is any indication. In 1965, the community of Fort Wrigley was moved up the river to where Wrigley now sits.

Elder Gabe Hardisty was 20 years old when the move was made. He said he remembers about 30 or 40 families being moved over the course of the summer. The reason the community was moved, he said, was because the location had been flooded a few times and also it wasn’t easily accessible. Since there was no airport and no helicopters around, it was difficult for residents to receive help when the river couldn't be crossed by boat or car, Hardisty added.

"We lost a lot of people … when they got sick in the spring and fall," he said.

In the case of Nahanni Butte, there would be a discussion with the Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) before the move was made. David Maguire, spokesperson for the department, said he wouldn’t speculate on whether or not MACA would contribute funds to such a cause.

"(The community) would have to talk to MACA to figure out what we would do about it,” he said, adding there has been no discussion as of yet. "We are not going to do anything without the community government initiating it."

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