Flood warnings in Ontario's cottage country as warmth, rainfall hits locales
Seasonal flooding is swamping parts of Ontario's cottage country, with warming temperatures and heavy rainfall putting numerous communities under a flood watch and one town declaring a state of emergency.
Minden Hills, a small township in Haliburton County, has been under a state of emergency since Tuesday. Flooding has made it into people's homes, shut down roads and prompted the town to turn its local arena and community space into an evacuation centre.
In an update Friday, the town said the evacuation centre would open at 7:00 p.m. and that its downtown pedestrian and vehicle bridges will close at that same time "until further notice."
(Victoria Fenn Alvarado/The Weather Network)
Other parts of cottage country remain under a flood warning issued by the Ontario's Ministry of Natural Resources for the Bracebridge-Minden-Parry Sound District Thursday. That area includes portions of Muskoka and Haliburton.
The warning specifically identified three bodies of water that are of "particular concern":
Gull River in Minden, Ont.
Moon River, which flows from Lake Muskoka and empties into Georgian Bay.
Lake Muskoka.
The flood warning will remain in effect until April 22.
It also cautioned that in some areas, water levels could reach those seen in 2019, when a group of reservists with the Canadian Armed Forces were called in to help communities across Ontario.
Iconic Muskoka theme park impacted
Bracebridge, a town about 65 kilometers northwest of Minden, falls under the province's warning. Its flooded areas include the town's iconic Santa's Village theme park.
Tatiana Sutherland, marketing manager with Santa's Village, said the park has been in an "all-hands-on-deck situation" to protect its electrical equipment from water damage.
"We woke up and came to the park and found out that the entire back section of the park had flooded," she said, noting that the park often gets seasonal flooding.
However, Sutherland said this year's flooding could be the "second to worst" the park has seen in recent times, and they haven't been able to start the full cleanup process because water levels keep rising.
"The real work is when the water recedes because it drops sediment all over the park ... We think shoveling snow in the winter is bad, try shoveling sand," said Sutherland.
Despite the flooding, Sutherland said the park still plans to open on time.
Rick Maloney, Mayor of Bracebridge, said that conditions in the town could change "minute by minute, hour by hour."
"Mother Nature has helped us out a little bit," he said, referring to a pause in rainfall Friday.
Tatiana Sutherland, marketing manager with Santa's Village theme park, says the park still plans to open on time despite flooding. (Mehrdad Nazarahari/CBC News)
"[But] there's a big chunk of water that is moving through the system from the north, and we expect that that probably will land on our doorstep here ... probably sometime on Saturday."
Maloney said water levels have increased slightly along the Muskoka watershed and river, but not to the same extent that they were rising earlier in the week. Water levels for other rivers have meanwhile dropped.
The next 24 hours will be the "tell-tale" sign for what the town's response will be, he said.
The story was originally written by Alina Snisarenko and published for CBC News on April 17, 2026. It contains files from Michelle Song.