Incredible photos of Smithers ice jam show a town frozen over
Officials are watching the river levels closely and several homes remain on evacuation alert
It may be frozen, but there's nothing Disney-like about Smithers right now.
The B.C. community is stuck — quite literally — in ice, after a jam blocked the nearby Bulkley River over a stretch of some 300 metres.
The ice jam formed across the Christmas weekend, forcing some families to flee, worried that they would be cut off if they waited.
Around 20 households remain on evacuation alert as officials monitor the situation.
Despite the swing set in their back yard remaining halfway locked in ice, Regan and Elsbeth Fielding say they are feeling a lot more positive about how things are looking.
"For us it's looking a lot better," Regan Fielding told CBC's Chris Brown on Thursday.
"We were really worried when the water was coming up, but now it's all frozen."
The water came right up to their back deck, just yards from their house. Holes in the ice show its currently standing a couple of feet lower than at its peak.
"It 's a little bit of an adventure," Elsbeth Fielding said.
According to regional official Bill Miller, there has been very little change over the past 24 hours and, although the water level dropped a little overnight, the expectation is that the level is likely to ebb and flow depending on the weather and how cold it gets in the area.
With files from Chris Brown