Alberta’s premier, Alison Redford, called the situation in High River devastating.
Redford said she remembers living with her mother in the town.
“This is a place I remember as a kid. I look at these streets and I remember shopping with her on these streets,” she said during a tour Saturday.
“The world changed two days ago. It changed for families, it changed for businesses, it changed for us as a provincial government.”
Redford said it was a sad day but warned that the crisis was not over.
“We are still involved in search and rescue.
“We’re not even to a point yet where we are assessing damage.”
During a stop in Medicine Hat Minister of Municipal Affairs, Doug Griffiths, said the government needed to assess the infrastructure before they could allow residents back in to affected areas.
“It’s very important that no one takes this for granted and that we’re clear.
“With water damage like this it’s underground.”
The premier also stopped in Medicine Hat later in the day to look at how the community was preparing for the likelihood of a flood.
“We know that they are getting ready for this and we want to go down there and see what’s going on.”
Health Minister Fred Horne, who was also on the tour, said they were preparing for the worst.
“We may have to preemptively evacuate some of the continuing care facilities in town it’s not looking like that at the moment but we are prepared if that is the case.”
“This is more exceptional then we have ever seen in Alberta before,” Redford told the media.
“We are going to work in very close partnership on a daily basis with the community, with local leaders to make sure we rebuild High River.”
Military support such as helicopters, engineering equipment and over 1,200 personnel has been deployed to help in the recovery efforts.
With files from Bill Fortier
