It doesn't feel like spring yet but all this snow is going to melt eventually, and that thought is enough to worry residents in Ramara Township.  

Today they got together to figure out how to prevent a spring melt from becoming a disaster.

Tony Howes has more than 150 sandbags somewhere under all the snow. He needed them last year and tonight he's starting to dig them out for what he expects to be another bad spring for flooding.

“I have a lot of concerns looking at the snow,” Howes says. “It's literally everywhere. We go hunting up in Huntsville and the snow is huge in the bush. The water is traveling from all over the place.”

Howes lives along Lake St. John in Ramara Township.

It has taken several months after flooding last spring, but life is back to normal on Bluebird Street in Ramara. Once, it was a mess and families were packing up what they could before they left. Now, people are concerned it could all happen again.

Aerial pictures show just how bad the flooding was last year in Ramara. Hundreds of homes were flooded out. But it the only area hit hard by flooding. Huntsville, Bracebridge, and several other Muskoka communities were also washed out.

“We can't prevent Mother Nature doing what Mother Nature does, but we can hopefully be prepared to mitigate the impact if it does happen,” says Ramara Fire Chief David McCarthy.

Today, McCarthy and Ramara’s mayor were joined by other emergency officials as they discussed what to do if and when the flooding returns in a couple of months.

“Last year we weren't as prepared because our snowmelt was already completed when the flooding took place so we thought we were okay, so we had to play catch-up,” he says. “This year we want to be prepared.”

McCarthy says staff will make sure sand and bags are dropped off in low-lying areas well before any flooding this spring.

Officials say they are better prepared for possible spring flooding this year than they were last year. They are hoping property owners are also ready for what could happen.

One thing they say is certain is the flooding will return. It’s just a matter of how bad it will be.