Nearly 300 Perth-Andover residents are spending Sunday night away from their homes due to the threat of flooding on the St. John and Tobique rivers.

A mandatory evacuation order is in place and a state of emergency remains in effect.

A major ice jam on the St. John River stabilized overnight Saturday and water levels receded slightly by Sunday morning, but officials are concerned about the possibility of the jam releasing.

“Of course our concern, if the jam shifts in place now and chokes out the flow (of the river), we could see water rising rapidly in the community,” said Perth-Andover chief administrative officer Dan Dionne.

Charles MacFarlane’s home and business are in the evacuation zone.

“At the moment I’m not really all that upset about it, because there’s nothing I can do about it,” MacFarlane said.

As a precaution, 23 patients from the local hospital were either sent home or taken to other facilities. The hospital’s emergency room is still open.

The Canadian Red Cross is providing shelter to evacuees at the Perth-Andover Middle School.

“The shelter will remain open until the village doesn’t require our services anymore,” said volunteer Gordon Boone.

There are concerns that ice jams upriver might break, sending more water into the Perth-Andover area.

“Of course we’re really concerned about overnight, what might happen,” Dionne said.

Residents were allowed to return to their homes to collect belongings on Sunday, but the mandatory evacuation order is in effect as of 8 p.m.

This is a familiar situation for many local residents.

“Especially since the Beachwood Dam was built in the 1950s, since then we’ve certainly had a lot of flooding issues,” Dionne said.

The village has put its emergency plan to use nine times since a major flood in 1987. Several homes have been relocated to higher ground since flooding from an ice jam in 2012 destroyed 75 homes and businesses.

“They should dredge our bloody river,” said Perth-Andover mayor Terry Ritchie. “They should get rid of the rocks, they should have drones controlling the river so we know where things are.”

Andover Elementary School, Southern Victoria High School and Perth-Andover Middle School will be closed Monday, according to the Anglophone West School District.

With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore