Flooding in areas northwest of Edmonton has caused multiple alerts and evacuations this weekend.
Fourteen families are out of their homes in Woodlands County after ice jams caused the Athabasca River to back up and flood residential areas.
“This is not a normal ice break up; because of the way it jammed it basically came out of nowhere. Thursday water levels went down, then rose suddenly on Saturday and flooded residential areas,” Woodlands County Chief Admin Officer Luc Mercier told CTV News. “It is my humble opinion the ice is breaking up this way because it melted so fast leaving big chunks behind.”
The county called a State of Emergency after deeming the flooding dangerous for residents.
Danielle Merrifield is one of 10 homeowners in Whitecourt who was given short notice to leave Saturday.
“I got a call saying, ‘You better leave’,” Merrifield told CTV News. “There’s no getting back until the water recedes.”
The four other families left their homes in Fort Assiniboine on Sunday.
In Grande Prairie, the Muskoseepi Park was evacuated and closed Saturday night after last week’s rapid snowmelt caused a flash flood into the Bear Creek Reservoir, which nearly overtook the park’s dam.
“We opened the flood gates at 10 per cent first,” Grande Prairie Infrastructure and Protective Services Director Horacio Galanti told CTV News. “Usual operation is at two per cent – two to four per cent, that is the normal discharge … then we moved the gates to 16 per cent slowly increasing the flows downstream, trying to reduce the water levels upstream of the dam.”
Galanti says the water levels have stabilized on Sunday and the alert has been downgraded to a warning, but the park will remain closed until the water recedes.
The park entrances are barricaded and police are patrolling the area to make sure people stay outside.
With files from Angela Jung and Nicole Weisberg
