Watch: Buffalo’s Mikey McBryan publishes aerial footage of flood
On Thursday morning, Joe and Mikey McBryan of Buffalo Airways flew to Hay River and Kátł’odeeche First Nation to survey the flood damage from the air.
Narrating a video published to YouTube later that same day, Mikey said what they saw was “absolute craziness.”
He described how his mother had raced away from the flash flood on Wednesday night and how his sister’s beachfront property, near where the Hay River feeds into Great Slave Lake, looked like it had been destroyed.
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The paved section of Hay River’s airport is underwater and unusable, while a different section of gravel runway is no longer flooded. The airport remains inaccessible as it lies on Vale Island, one of the hardest-hit areas.
In an update at 2pm on Thursday, the Town of Hay River said the airport was only available for emergency access.
McBryan’s footage shows the river is clear of ice a few miles out of town to the south.
“This is just nuts,” he says in the video. “This has never happened in Hay River in recent memory.”
McBryan said the purpose of the trip was to get footage of Hay River and the Kátł’odeeche First Nation so residents and first responders can get a better sense of the impact of the flood.
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“We have all airplanes standing by in case anything needs to be done,” he said.