Floodwater stops rising on upper Kam River

Water levels along the upper Kaministiquia River have stopped rising,according tothe Ministry of Natural Resources.

Peter Jabs lives off Silver Falls Road, and two of his boats were washed away last week when Ontario Power Generation released water from Dog Lake down the upper Kaministiquia River. Jabs said the river has been getting closer to his house.

"Ive had the [Ministry of Natural Resources] come over with sandbags, about 30 of them, we placed it over the weeping tile drain from the foundation of the house so that no water can get in that way," Jabs said. "The waters actually about half way up the sandbags."

Jabs added that the floodwater isonly about five metres away from his house, whereas the river is usually about 30-metres away.

However, the Ministry of Natural Resources saidgood news for residents near the river is that floodwater shouldnt get any higher.

"Weve seen the inflows into Dog Lake subside, so what that means is that the level on Dog Lake has stabilized and we have even seen a marginal decline in the lake level," said Ross Johnston, conservation officer.

He added that the water levels are very similar to a flood that happened four years ago.

"There's places on the road that have a foot of water over top of them, and we're probably looking at - people will remember in 2008, there was another incident and we're probably at the same level that we saw in 2008," he said

Johnston said in order to bring down the water levels officials will have to maintain the current outflow from area dams for several days.