![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Listen to this article<\/p>\n
Estimated 2 minutes<\/p>\n
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n
Kasheshewan First Nation has declared a full-scale evacuation due to the risk of flooding from the Albany River.<\/p>\n
Most of Kashechewan’s 2,300 residents already have been living in other Ontario communities for months due to issues with the water treatment plant.<\/p>\n
The Cree community, located near the James Bay coast, started voluntary evacuations earlier in April for those left in the community. But recent observations along the Albany River pushed Kashechewan Chief Hosea Wesley and council to make the evacuation mandatory.<\/p>\n
“The risk level is too high,\u201d said Tyson Wesley, Kasheshewan\u2019s executive director.<\/p>\n
The community is at risk of flooding every spring, but higher than average snowfall during the winter has led to higher-than-average water levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know MNR [Ontario\u2019s Ministry of Natural Resources] has also considered this year to be a high risk factor. So we’re relying on a lot of information to kind of make our decisions,” Wesley said.<\/p>\n
Wesley said around 240 people remain in the community, and another 265 community members have been living out on the land for the annual goose hunt season.<\/p>\n
He said only a \u201cskeleton crew\u201d will remain in the community to maintain critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Tyson said the community is co-ordinating with Indigenous Services Canada to schedule flights in the coming days so the remaining community members can leave. They will go to cities already hosting evacuees such as Niagara Falls, Timmins and Kapuskasing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The neighbouring community of Fort Albany, located across the Albany River, has not declared a full-scale evacuation.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut things can change quickly as we are keeping an eye on what is happening,\u201d said Chief Robert Nakogee in a video address to residents on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Fort Albany is located on higher ground than Kashechewan.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur highest point is Fort Albany\u2019s lowest point,\u201d Wesley said.<\/p>\n
For years, Kashechewan\u2019s leaders have lobbied the federal government to move the community to higher ground.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646378,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":["post-646377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}