Officials in northern New Brunswick communities are unhappy with the province's response to the flooding upriver from Edmundston, feeling that their situation has largely been ignored by the provincial Emergency Measures Organization.

As more than 100 millimetres of rain fell earlier this week in northern New Brunswick, Maine and southern Quebec, some communities have been getting most of their information from the United States, said Baker Brook Mayor Georges Michaud.

The water has been running into the St. John River, which stretches about 670 kilometres from Maine to the port city of Saint John and drains 55,000 square kilometres of land.

More than 100 people living in the Baker Brook and Clair area near the Maine-New Brunswick border had to evacuate their homes. In Clair, some buildings flooded up to the second floor and in Edmundston rail tracks and surrounding streets flooded.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was scheduled to visit the flooded areas around Edmundston on Friday.

More than 20 Baker Brook homes have been damaged and about 50 residents in the small town fled their homes. In Edmundston, another 40 families were displaced by the flood.

In Maine, Gov. John Baldacci declared a state of emergency in response to the quickly rising waters, but Premier Shawn Graham has said there was no need to do that in New Brunswick because governments and emergency organizations were working together.

But it's not working for Baker Brook, Michaud said. When the town asked EMO for information on the water levels in the area, it wasn't available. "We were hoping for answers and we never had them," Michaud said.

River gauges not in every community: EMO

Andy Morton, EMO deputy director, said on Friday water monitoring gauges are placed at intervals along the St. John River to give an overview of the river. They are not in every community.

Morton said he couldn't say whether there were any gauges in the Baker Brook or Clair area.

The EMO's daily river reports have not been providing information on the water levels in the area nor has EMO been able to provide the level at which the river floods in the Edmundston area.

The river was at 142.72 metres on Friday.

"We don't normally see this kind of flooding in these areas at this time of year," Morton said.

The high levels of rainfall in the area caused what amounted to a flash flood, he said, and because the communities were so close to the headwaters of the river they didn't have time to react.

"This is a very, very sad situation," said Restigouche-La-Vallee MLA Percy Mockler. "Damages done to those properties — people are crying. It's their life-long belongings they see floating on the water."

First line of response at the local level

Baker Brook has been entirely cut off from the surrounding communities with the flooding of its two main roads.

People in the village have been using bottled water because the water treatment plant has been flooded, as has the sewage lagoon in Clair.

Emergency officials seem more concerned with what's occurring in Fredericton, where the river crested at 8.33 metres on Thursday, than the smaller communities in the north, Michaud said.

Morton said the first line of response in every community has to come from the local level.

Graham added that assistance during the floods is available to every region in the province.

EMO has staff in Edmundston and two emergency managers from Quebec are also in the area.

Red Cross has also set up in the area and have taken in 15 seniors after their nursing home was evacuated. The Red Cross shelter in the area is also currently housing about 20 families.

Emergency responders are providing assistance to residents requiring evacuation and getting their basements pumped out.

Percy said that presence was not available as the waters rose and stranded people and destroyed property.

"The set up that they [EMO] had here was zilch," Percy said. "You know all those volunteers, they were not present and there was no advance notification given, no warning given to the people of northwestern New Brunswick."

Dick Isabelle, the executive director of police, fire and emergency services for the Department of Public Safety, said the department will be examining how emergency support is delivered to smaller communities in the future.

Smaller communities are less equipped to deal with emergency situations than cities such as Fredericton or Edmundston, Isabelle said.

But emergency officials have been ensuring that people in the northern area are cared for and the flooding is addressed, he said.