After a state of emergency was issued for the Rural Municipality of Dufferin and Town of Carman this past weekend the water flowing through the Boyne River has subsided from the initial surge of water which caused overland flooding in some areas.

"The water went up overnight, probably eight to ten inches," said Carman mayor Bob Mitchell. "It came down big time on Monday. It's looking pretty good. Highway 245 has been closed temporarily so that they can pump water from one side to the other. They have fire trucks and pumps over there doing that. I expect it to open this afternoon (Tuesday). School is closed of course. The water treatment plant is still shut down and we are getting water from the Pembina Valley Water Co-op. We had a bridge damaged yesterday of course. So, we are going to have to get someone out to do a structural analysis of that to see if it needs to be replaced."

Mitchell noted the Province has notified town officials they are expecting another surge of water to be flowing through the Boyne River in about another day or so. He added because everything has gone down within the Town, the province feels everything should be manageable with minimal flooding.

"We are encouraging people to leave the sandbags in place until the end of April or until told differently," explained Mitchell.

There are a number of areas of concern and that the Town will be keeping an eye on for some time. These areas include, behind the Post Office, Heritage Acres in Dufferin, just behind the hospital and by the golf course.

Meanwhile, there was a call made during the evening yesterday to help sandbag a pair of homes in Dufferin.

Reeve George Gray would like to think the worst has come and gone, but only time will tell. He added the fire department was part of the crews who were doing their best to divert the water from the pair of homes, who were out of the diversion on highway 245.

"They were pumping and were able to save the residences. They did a wonderful job," said Gray. "We had a lot of young folks sand bagging until 1:00 a.m. at our municipal shop. It was nice to see the enthusiasm of the younger generation."

According to Gray the Municipality has gone through at least 25,000 sand bags in the past few days and stated no homes have been compromised by water, but have had a few with water in the basement.

At this time it is the goal of the RM to do what they can to get the roads back in operation.

"We probably have twenty to thirty miles of roads that have been compromised. Whether it be overflow by water or if a culvert is out," said Gray. "It's going to take a lot of money to fix. The Provincial government hasn't announced the disaster flood assistance program yet, but we have been in contact with all the right people and hopefully there is something in there for us.