Provincial officials are preparing to evacuate close to 50 people from the James Smith Cree Nation because of ongoing flooding issues.

Concerns about road access that prompted evacuations this past spring have cropped up again because of recent heavy rain.

Emergency management commissioner Duane McKay says the 48 people being moved out today are considered “high risk” — but the evacuation might be expanded over the next couple of days:

“The road access issues are varied in that community, so obviously our priority is for high risk — those that might need emergency services — so we’re going to target those.  And then we’ll continue to assess the road access issues over the next day or so.  And if it continues to be a problem, then obviously there might be some more folks that need to be moved.”

The evacuees are being sent to Melfort.