Nicole Hancock
Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony ...

Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.

Indigenous community hosts full moon ceremony to heal Chedoke Creek

spring breakup

Tension high as water rises in Fort Liard, holds steady in Fort Simpson

Tension high as water rises in Fort Liard, holds steady in Fort Simpson

With a highly anticipated spring breakup underway in the Dehcho, residents in Fort Liard and Fort Simpson N.W.T., are seeing rising water. In Fort Liard, water is reaching the main road in the community, falling about 400 meters short from the general store. "It's happening so fast, it seems," said Robert Low, who works at the band office there. He said that some people are currently stranded at the general store and that others are being taken to safety. The ice along the river appeared to be flowing, up until a big sheet of ice came, then Low said: "everything stopped."

Some Jean Marie River residents are moved into new homes but worry about flood risk

Some Jean Marie River residents are moved into new homes but worry about flood risk

Last spring, when Lucy Simon walked into her family home and business after the flood waters in Jean Marie River First Nation receded, she started to cry. "We lost everything," she told CBC News on Friday. "The most important thing to me that I lost dearly is that the water went over my parents grave and my kids' baby pictures." She also lost freezers full of meat. Simon ran Lucy's Bed and Breakfast, a place where she provided traditional foods to guests. But she will not be continuing the business when the home is repaired. She's currently living in a trailer that she said is nice, but a small space for all her art supplies that her husband will occasionally trip over.

After catastrophic 2021 flood, N.W.T. communities prepare for spring breakup

After catastrophic 2021 flood, N.W.T. communities prepare for spring breakup

The Dehcho (Mackenzie River) is already moving near Fort Providence, and in the communities of Fort Simpson and Fort Good Hope where the river is still frozen, community members are not waiting for disaster to strike — many have lifted their homes and have begun to move valuables to high ground. Floods in May last year were "the scale of something that just had never been anticipated," said Fort Simpson Mayor Sean Whelly.

State of emergency declared in Aklavik, N.W.T., as floodwaters rise

State of emergency declared in Aklavik, N.W.T., as floodwaters rise

A state of emergency has been declared in Aklavik, N.W.T., after water started rising over the road that leads to the hamlet's dump, according to a statement issued by its mayor and council overnight. Residents would start being evacuated from their homes Sunday morning between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m. local time, the statement said. The remote community of roughly 600 people has been on flood watch for about a week and is the latest of several communities in the Northwest Territories to be affected by historic flooding on the Mackenzie River, caused by the spring breakup.

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