Alberta Parks declares local state of emergency as flooding traps 1,500 campers
Emergency crews have been called in to help evacuate campers from several campgrounds in the mountains, west of Calgary, after several days of heavy rain caused localized flooding.
Alberta Parks has declared a local state of emergency in an area of Kananaskis Country because of flooding that has resulted in hundreds of people being unable to leave campgrounds in the area due to dangerous road conditions.
Alberta Parks staff and other emergency responders have been dispatched to the area, about an hour west of Calgary, to help evacuate campers, shut down roads and monitor infrastructure in the area.
Anyone who is already in the area is being advised to remain where they are, if it is safe to do so, while other potential visitors are being encouraged to postpone travel until conditions improve.
Alberta Parks estimates more than 1,500 people are unable to leave the area.
“The same rainfall event that affected Canmore has affected a number of steep creeks and rivers in the Kananaskis region. There are impacts to transportation corridors throughout Kananaskis country,” said Jeff Genung, Kananaskis’ Director of Emergency Management.
“Right now, our focus is on reestablishing connectivity in the Highway 40 corridor. There are multiple locations where that connectivity is broken, particularly, the Evan Thomas Bridge currently cannot be crossed. There are other bridges that have been impacted to a lesser degree,” Genung added.
Emergency officials hope to have at least one route out of the area restored by sometime late Monday.
Until then, Alberta’s minister of forestry and parks, Todd Loewen, said in a post on social media, that William Watson Lodge and the Peter Lougheed Discovery Centre are available to provide temporary shelter to anyone who needs a safe, dry place to stay.
⚠️Kananaskis Improvement District and Kananaskis Country have issued a State of Local Emergency due to ongoing rainfall and localized flooding affecting road access and several recreation areas.
In the nearby town of Canmore, an evacuation alert is in place, with some residents being told to prepare to leave immediately if an evacuation “order” is issued and to have enough essentials packed to be away from home for at least 72 hours.
“Rapidly changing conditions in Canmore’s steep creeks are threatening homes and infrastructure,” the town said on its website.
“For those who have experienced flooding in the past, especially events like 2013, seeing water levels rise again and hearing alerts overnight can be scary and unsettling. Those feelings are real,” said Canmore Mayor Sean Krausert.”
The evacuation alert is in place for all residents in the Palliser area, located on the east side of Canmore, parallel to the Trans-Canada Highway (Highway 1) and the Bow River.
The town is also advising residents to stay away from all creeks and rivers because “embankments are unsafe and conditions are unpredictable.”
“Rain began at approximately 10 a.m. yesterday, with the heaviest precipitation occurring between 5 and 9 p.m., last night,” said Scott Kye, Director of the Emergency Coordination Centre for the Town of Canmore.
“Precipitation intensity reached approximately 9 mm per hour — and in total we saw approximately 131 millimeters of rain in the Cougar Creek watershed, and 67 millimeters at the Canmore Civic Center,” Kye added.
In some “good news,” though, the town said in a social media post that it has “made it through the worst of the rain,” and the water flow in Cougar Creek was estimated to have peaked at around 10 p.m. on Sunday.