Residents in northern New Brunswick are questioning why their region didn't get much help from the Emergency Measures Organization during the flood.

Homes were under more than a metre of water as the St. John River spilled over its banks and into the streets of communities in Madawaska County.

People in the small village of Baker Brook say they never saw the river as high as it was during the flood and they weren't given any warning the water was going to reach the levels it did.

The provincial EMO issued general warnings of rising water levels, but its updates had no specific forecasts for communities in the Madawaska County area because there are no river gauges in the area.

Even if a gauge had been placed there, it may not have predicted the flood, because it was largely caused by 100 millimetres of rainfall in the northern part of the province, southern Quebec and Maine, and then funnelled into the river, said EMO director Ernie MacGillivray.

It meant the water levels amounted to a flash flood in the area, MacGillivray said, and proved to be a bit of a shock for some people.

Sudden event, says EMO

"This was a fairly sudden event, so it was quite distinct from what was expected in the lower St. John," he said.

What was more shocking was that there appeared to be no emergency plan in place, said Baker Brook resident Rob Robichaud, also a volunteer firefighter.

"The only warning we got was because there was four feet of water in the house. That's the only warning we got. Nobody knew," Robichaud said.

Municipalities have the responsibility of developing their own emergency plans, said EMO deputy director Andy Morton.

The EMO's role is to provide some training ahead of the crisis and support, on request, when the plan isn't enough, he said.

Morton said last week that Baker Brook had not called the EMO to request help in the area.

Baker Brook Mayor Georges Michaud said the town does have a plan in place, but with no forecast available, it was unable to prepare for the extent of the flooding that hit the region.

Calls not returned, says mayor

The town tried to reach the EMO on three occasions and never received an answer, Michaud said, so it instead turned to neighbouring Maine for information on the river.

"Those people know everything about what the river is going to respond to. They even know how many inches will be at the bridge in Fort Kent for example…. So they knew at that time when I reached them, there was three feet of water coming up during that night."

But some people in the village are also unimpressed with how the mayor dealt with the situation.

Baker Brook resident Paul Gauvin said the village council was providing bottled water out of its offices, which residents had to go through water more than a metre deep to reach.

Robichaud said he never saw the mayor during the entire crisis. The only official that visibly came to the community was Premier Shawn Graham announcing a financial assistance program for flood victims, he said.

Command centre set up in Edmundston

But MacGillivray said officials met with Michaud and addressed the concerns of the community as quickly as possible.

"Resources were pushed, people were activated," he said.

Emergency Measures set up its flood command centre in Edmundston, about 20 kilometres north of the community. Red Cross also opened a shelter in the nearby city.

Graham is also defending how EMO dealt with the flooding in the north.

"The challenge that we had in northern New Brunswick is that people expected us to move into a recovery mode immediately after the flood," Graham said. "But we were in full response in other regions of the province."

But Gauvin said it was frustrating to hear about emergency officials aiding with the rescue of farm animals in the Fredericton area, while his community was still under water as well.

The province will study its response to the flood, said Dick Isabelle, the executive director of police, fire and emergency services for the Department of Public Safety.

A final report should be complete in about three months.