While the rest of Hay River largely escaped significant flooding because of spring breakup, the same cannot be said for the 2 Seasons Adventures campground.
According to co-owner Fraser Pike, the campground suffered about $500,000 in damages from flooding.
That follows about $250,000-$300,000 in flood damages suffered in August because of a combination of high wind and high water on Great Slave Lake.
Pike said about $200,000 in repairs had been made over the winter to the damages from last year.
“And it basically got wiped out again,” he said, adding the operation is back into cleanup mode.
Pike said there were even more damages from this year’s floodwater and ice.
“We’re basically out of business for the season because we have to rebuild all the roads,” he said. “We have to rebuild the campsites. We have to rebuild all the yurts.”
However, Pike said there is a possibility some campsites may be open by mid-July depending on the weather, and perhaps one or two yurts may be open by August.
Over the winter, the operation had put in 25 new campsites, but they were wiped out by the latest flooding.
The campground’s dance floor had been moved further back from the lake after last year’s flooding, but it was not far enough.
“I probably went back about 12 feet and it came up that high,” said Pike. “The load of water that came through was unbelievable.”
After last summer’s flooding, the yurts had been raised two feet higher, but now the plan is to raise them even higher on screw piles.
“We’re going to go up six feet,” said Pike. “So they’ll look like little tiki huts out of Bora Bora.”
The operator said the floors and fabrics of the yurts will have to be replaced, along with the furniture.
The campground’s roads were also severely damaged.
“We re-gravelled everything there and we lost all that again,” said Pike. “So we’re starting to haul gravel again now and trying to start cleanup again.”
The owners’ house at Two Seasons Adventures escaped damage, since it is six feet high on screw piles.
However, a nearby building used for event staging was surrounded by floodwater.
“The one beside my house was pretty damaged,” said Pike. “Water got right into that.”
The co-owner said the property will “definitely” be rebuilt.
“It’s just too good of a product,” he said. “People just love it. And we’re learning more and more about how we should deal with flooding.”
The campground is on the mainland, not on Vale Island, and about a mile from the West Channel of the Hay River.
Glenn Smith, the senior administrative officer with the Town of Hay River, said there was flooding which damaged sections of the unpaved public road in the area.
“At some point it made it impassable and certainly washed out parts of the road,” said Smith. “So we’ll have to do some cleanup work on that road.”