Cabins flooded near Salluit after week of heavy rain

After an unusually snowy winter followed recently by rain, cabins near Salluit are being flooded.

“This is the only time I have seen it in the 30 years I’ve been going back and forth for fishing and hunting in that area,” Michael Cameron, a longtime resident and former mayor of Salluit, said in a Facebook message to Nunatsiaq News on Wednesday.

There are more than 40 cabins on both sides of Lake Françoys-Malherbe, also known by its Inuit name Pangaliriaq. The lake flows into Deception River about 12 kilometres east of Deception Bay.

In the winter, it’s about a two-hour snowmobile ride to that area from Salluit, which has a population of about 1,580 people.

Normally, the cabins sit roughly 45 metres away from the waterfront, Cameron said. Now, though, some are in the water and one appears to be floating.

The snow melted quickly there this spring after about a week and a half of “on and off” heavy rains.

“Can’t blame climate change or poor decisions by hunters to build near lakes — the hunters have been going back and forth for over 50 years,” Cameron said.

Owners of cabins that are close to the waterline will have to take a “good look” at their cabins and possibly move them, he said.

Cameron has a cabin in the area as well but said he built it “way above the waterline,” closer to the road from the Raglan Mine that runs to the Deception Bay port.

Kativik Regional Government representatives and Salluit Mayor Maggie Q. Saviakjuk didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the situation.