The flood waters have started to recede, but it's doing little to quell the anger some residents of Farrell Street feel after their homes were boxed in by diking.

Residents Rick Kingdon and Echo Wylie believe officials may have intentionally set their homes up for flooding because they want to use their property for an extension of the river pathway.

"It almost seems they want to flood us," Kingdon said. "They've always wanted this property and they don't want to pay for it. In my opinion they figure if they can flood us out, then that's a good way of doing it."

Kingdon and Wylie live in a handful of homes that were between the gabion diking the city and province installed and the river. The diking went down the middle of the street, protecting homes on the other side, but leaving them vulnerable. They believe the diking could have had the effect of pushing more water towards their home if river levels had continued to rise.

"Who made this decision to actually float us down the river? Because that's what they were trying to do, I swear," Wylie said.

Kindgon described the process of the the diking as "being thrown to the wolves" and added he wasn't pleased with the communication he received from the city or with the accommodations he was offered after he was ordered to evacuate.

Kingdon said the city should target certain problem areas along the street with sandbag dikes, rather than use the large-scale gabion dikes. He also said the sandbags the city provided weren't strong enough.

City spokeswoman Chris Bone said municipal representatives would be willing to discuss the situation with the residents if the residents requested a meeting.

Wylie is hoping to organize residents with a petition and plans to hold a meeting on Sunday evening to discuss the issues around the flooding with her neighbours.

She's lobbying for a plan that would see the city build a walkway along the river that would also serve as a dike and protect the bank from erosion.