In 1951, a man in Hay River, N.W.T., drowned after the town experienced devastating flooding. The cause of the flooding was the same thing that caused the 2022 floods: ice jams. But a 1988 report by the federal government details that a flood prevention measure that had been used the previous three years wasn't used in 1951. This was the practice of ice blasting, using explosives to blow up river ice and prevent jamming. "Because of the flooding in 1951, an extensive blasting program was undertaken in the spring of 1952," the report said.