Residents urged to flee as N.B. river passes flood level

Canada

Homeowners along New Brunswick's St. John River are facing rising waters and a deadline to evacuate.

Time is running out for people to decide whether they want to leave their homes or hunker down and wait out the rising water, which was at 7.1 metres Tuesday and projected to hit 7.8 metres by today -- nearly 1.5 metres above the flood level.

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MAINE - The rain-swollen St. John River crested early Thursday after HITTING A RECORD HIGH, forcing hundreds of residents to flee to higher ground. Image: A man walks his dog past a flooded Main St. in Fort Kent, Maine on Wednesday April, 30, 2008. Homes and businesses were evacuated Wednesday as spring floods along the St. John River spilled into the downtown of this Canadian border town, marking what emergency management officials described as a 100-year flood for the St. John. (AP Photo/ Shawn Patrick Ouellette)

Town and state officials called it THE WORST FLOOD IN 80 YEARS OF RECORD-KEEPING. "We have never seen anything of this magnitude."