Officials expanded the list of communities north of Winnipeg that have declared a state of emergency late Wednesday after an ice jam on the Red River caused flash flooding in the region.

The flooding has forced at least 30 families to flee their homes in St. Andrews.

The rural municipalities of East St. Paul, West St. Paul, Blanchard, St. Laurent, Franklin and St. Clements are also under a state of emergency.

The province has deployed a second sandbag machine, 100,000 additional sandbags and almost three kilometres of tube diking to the area.

Some residents are still scrambling to fill sandbags and safeguard their properties while others are leaving the area in boats.

Hundreds of homes are expected to be affected by the rising waters, officials said. Residents are preparing for the possibility they may have to evacuate the area on Thursday.

Communities in the area are usually protected by a floodway but the ice jam has caused the water to flood the banks in several areas.

"We were prepared as much as we could be but we just didn't have any idea it was actually going to come over the banks," said Gail Masson, who left her home Wednesday. "We just weren't prepared for that."

An ice breaker works to ease the flow of water on the Red River on Monday. (CBC)Work crews laboured throughout the night to chop the corners off the massive ice jam in the hopes of moving it down the river.

The backup of water is likely going to cause more ice jams downstream and lead to more flooding, said Paul Guyader, emergency co-ordinator for the area.

"This is going to be a recurring problem for a number of days," Guyader said.

Forecasters have been expecting the annual flooding in the Red River basin to be particularly bad this year because of heavy rainfall, but ice jams have added to the problem as far down as North Dakota.

With files from the Canadian Press