Forty Mile – The County of Forty Mile continues to watch water levels very closely.
As of Friday a state of emergency remains in place.
The biggest area of concern remains around Burdett, and the County is addressing flood water that’s threatening critical infrastructure in the town.
They’ve hired a company to help pump water out of an area behind the arena and community centre that swamped a lift station. The county built a berm around that and pumped the water out from there.
Officials say water levels are starting to go down in most areas but are still rising in places like Rattlesnake Lake, and Yellow Lake.
The County has started pumping water from Yellow Lake, into a nearby river to manage the water levels.
Councillor Gerald Reimer said some homes in the county have been impacted by the flooding, but they aren’t sure yet exactly how many.
“We’ve just had some water in the basement of a couple houses that I know of in [Burdett],” he explained. “There’s other houses towards Foremost that have been flooded too.”
Several roads are still impacted by the overland flooding and residents are being asked not to drive on flooded roads.
There are several roads and culverts damaged by the flooding. The County of Forty Mile said it’s not sure about the extent of the damage and it will likely be a month before it dries up enough for them to do a proper assessment.
Councillor Stacey Barrows said between the longer lasting winter, and the abundance of water, farmers are going to be behind schedule getting crops in the ground.
“It has a huge impact as to how long the snow has lasted into the spring,” she said. “Normally by now we’re seeding and I’m guessing we’re a couple weeks behind and it might be another week or two, maybe three, before we can get to seeding.”
Citizens are invited to contact the County Of Forty Mile public works office at 403-867-3940 to report new or rapidly changing overland flooding conditions.
