After weeks of flooding in Bracebridge, work has now shifted for some from stopping the water to cleaning the mess it left behind; but for others, the flooding is far from over with several homes still surrounded by water.

“When you are surrounded by water, and we were completely surrounded by water, then you have not much hope to keep your house dry,” said a resident.

As of Saturday, a state of emergency remained in effect for the northern community, but Rick Maloney, the Deputy Mayor for the Town of Bracebridge says the situation is slowly improving.

“The north branch is right back to seasonal levels,” said Maloney. ”The south branch at the mouth of the river, its Lake Muskoka, is decreasing but decreasing at a very slow rate.”

The water levels on Lake Muskoka and the Muskoka River are dropping approximately five centimetres each day. The town anticipates it will take at least a week before things even come close to normal.

Roads that were once covered in water are now again driveable, and some docks are only partially submerged. Maloney says each day more and more homeowners are finding themselves in the clean-up stage.

“Folks have found things that have landed up on their property whether it be lumber from docks, docks themselves, lawn chairs [and] logs,” said Maloney.

More than 65,000 sandbags are scattered throughout the town, many of them are no longer needed. On Saturday, approximately 100 volunteers joined the Georgian Volunteer Search and Rescue team in picking up and removing the unwanted sandbags.

“It's a lot of heavy slugging, heavy lifting there but we're doing it mostly for people that aren't able to do it for themselves,” said Jim Bloomfield with the Georgian Bay Volunteer Search and Rescue.

There are eight sandbag drop-off locations in the town, and each household is eligible for one free voucher for the landfill.

Officials from the Town of Bracebridge are expected to meet on Monday to determine when the state of emergency will be lifted, and when a ban on vessel use on the lake will be rescinded.