Paul Bickford/NNSL photo
The Town of Hay River is preparing for this year's spring breakup with the added complication of the Covid-19 crisis.
"If we have a flood in the middle of a pandemic, that adds a whole new layer to things," said Mayor Kandis Jameson.
That whole new layer would be the possibility of having to evacuate people from Vale Island while maintaining social distancing during that evacuation, and at wherever the people are moved for temporary accommodations.
In recent years, there has been no flooding as the spring breakups of the Hay River have been uneventful.
"It's Mother Nature and she can be kind of finicky sometimes," said Jameson. "The best-case scenario, we'll have what we've had the last couple of years. Worst-case scenario, we're going to be prepared for it."
During the April 6 online meeting of town council, Judy Goucher, the municipality's senior administrative officer (SAO), said Covid-19 adds complexity to planning for this year's spring breakup.
"If it was business as usual, our normal scenario would be we would make room within our community hall for people to come in on a temporary basis," she said. "We've got cots we could set up and things like that. That's not an option under a Covid scenario."
The Hay River Community Centre has been closed to the public since mid-March.
Goucher noted that a newly-hired temporary bylaw officer will help the town prepare for breakup.
The SAO added that the Community Emergency Management Committee is looking at the risk of significant flooding during breakup and what that would look like under a Covid-19 situation where people need to keep isolated.
"So a lot more planning will be going into our breakup activity to make sure that we are ready well in advance, that we are ready to move people safely, and that they know well in advance where they'll be going and how they'll get there so that we removed that anxiety, because anxiety is very high at this time," she said.
Deputy Mayor Robert Bouchard said the town is determining how many people actually live on Vale Island.
"We have been able from our system to tell how many houses are there. But how many people live in those houses just so we know if we ever have to evacuate them?" he said.
The Hay River breaks up in late April or early May.
The last heavy flooding on Vale Island was during spring breakup in 2008, and there was a little bit of flooding in 2009 and 2010.