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Belleville flooding shows no signs of receding

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Flood waters that led to a state of emergency in Belleville, Ont., are showing no signs of receding.

Water levels on the bloated Moira River likely won't subside for another week, Quinte Conservation's general manager Terry Murphy said Monday. The good news is they aren't likely to rise, either, even with rain forecast.

With showers Monday likely to continue into Tuesday, Murphy said the anticipated rainfall likely won't have much of an impact.

That's small consolation to neighbours who spent the weekend helping each other sandbag properties to protect what they can, while watching the waters rise around them.

“There are people who are going to be pretty frustrated because they're going to have water in their houses for a while,” Murphy said.

More than 200 homes are affected.

Just north of the city, the Carleton Cove trailer park was completely underwater.

“The trailers have turned to houseboats,” said trailer owner Mike Benson. “Unless you've got a good set of hipwaders you can't even get back in there.”

Residents along the Rideau River watched cautiously Monday as mini icebergs, upside-down boats, logs and broken docks floated towards Ottawa.

The water is the same level on either side of the sandbags around Jennifer Rochfort's home in Kars, Ont. This despite the constant effort of multiple sump pumps throwing water back over the bags onto her flooded lawn.

Neighbour Andre Paquette watched from next door. He was among those who helped Rochfort construct the sandbag fortress — one he doesn't think he'll need for his own home on slightly higher ground.

In nine years, this is only the second time he's seen flooding like this.

"It goes down in the daytime and goes up in the nighttime, by a few inches," he said.

Several other rivers in the province and Quebec were still under warning.

Residents along the Richelieu River in Quebec were warned to be on high alert for quickly rising waters due to rising temperatures and some homes in Beauceville were evacuated in anticipation of higher waters.

- with files from Luke Hendry, Doug Hempstead

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