Mar 16, 2007 — Local officials watched nervously Monday across the North Country as rivers rose with early spring rain and melting snow. Ice dams were the big worry. A bottleneck of ice on the Great Chazy River forced residents to evacuate neighborhoods in Champlain. Another dam on the Ausable River triggered flooding in the town of Jay, where a state of emergency was declared. Brian Mann was in the village of Ausable Forks yesterday when crews fought to dislodge one of the massive clots of ice. He sent this report.