Mackenzie Delta communities face rising river

The communities of Inuvik and Aklavik in the Northwest Territories' Mackenzie Delta region are dealing with high water levels caused by the spring breakup.

In Aklavik, the rising Mackenzie River has already washed out roads leading to the local landfill, fuel supply and sewage pump-out station. The hamlet had to cut off water and sewer service as a result.

Hamlet officials say they will survey the area by helicopter to get a better sense of the extent of the flooding.

RCMP say a state of emergency has not yet been declared, but homes may need to be evacuated if the river ice gets jammed.

10 rescued from hunting cabin

Ten people had to be airlifted by helicopter from a hunting cabin near Aklavik on Friday afternoon.

Chuck Grandy, a pilot and base manager with Gwich'in Helicopters Ltd., said the people were stranded near Horseshoe Bend, trapped by rising water.

When Grandy arrived at the scene, the group was waiting for him on the roof of the hunting cabin, he said.

"It's quite bad. Within another hour, I'd say … there wouldn't be really any place to pick them up," he told CBC News late Friday afternoon.

"I was able to get in and land on the spot, but probably in another hour it would be underwater."

Barges go missing in Inuvik

Over in Inuvik, located 55 kilometres from Aklavik, officials with Northern Transportation Company Ltd. are scrambling to retrieve a number of barges and tug boats that were carried away by rushing water on Friday morning.

A total of eight barges and two tugboats were carried away, but NTCL president Bill Duffy said officials have tracked down three of the barges and the two tugboats.

"There's actually five barges that are still loose. We suspect that they're just a little bit further down the river and have stopped somewhere in the ice where the ice hasn't broken up," Duffy told CBC News on Friday afternoon

"We're going to charter a plane and the master is going to go up in the plane to see exactly where they are and get a game plan for how he's going to approach the situation."

To date, none of the barges or tugs appear to have been damaged, Duffy said.