There’s a new kind of taxi service in Ramara, where flood waters have risen to surround homes and submerge roads.
“Waders and a boat,” says Tony Howes with a laugh. “I run the taxi service here.”
He’s been using a boat to get people in and out of his house, which is surrounded by water from Lake St. John.
“I have about 200 sandbags and the water right behind me is about a foot and a half and a little farther out about five feet deep,” he says.
Howes has been preparing for spring floods for almost a month. His equipment has been moved to higher ground, and everything in his garage was taken up off the floor. Now he's just hoping the power stays on so his sump pumps keep working.
Flooding on the Black River is one of the primary reasons flooding is happening in the Lake St. John area. The flow is much higher than normal.
“It's been raising quite a bit. It raises about six to eight inches daily, sometimes more,” says resident Justin Logue. “As you can see down here, it's come up probably about three to four inches since about 8 a.m.”
The rising water means roads are submerged, and some people can't even get into their driveways. Denise Grimley has been filling sandbags as well, and has extras piled up ready to go. She says getting ready early was the only way to keep her property safe.
“Got a lot of sandbags and bins filled with sand just to hold the water back,” she says. “I've raised up my sheds to keep them out of the water because it gets wet every year, so hopefully this year I've raised it high enough.”
She says flood happens regularly, but this is the worst she’s seen it. Ramara residents say dealing with floods is just part of spring, but if the water rises much more it will be hard to keep up and prevent further damage.
“We were up as high as 198 cubic meters per second on Thursday and we're back down to 195 cubic meters per second,” says Ramara Fire Chief Dave McCarthy.
Officials say those numbers will have to drop nearly a quarter for the excess water to stop flowing into the lake and flooding properties.
