To say it’s been a trying few weeks for the people of Edson, Alta., may be an understatement.
After being forced to evacuate twice in the the span of a month due to wildfires fuelled by dry conditions, residents in the town about 180 kilometres west of Edmonton are now dealing with an opposite extreme: too much water.
“We asked for rain and boy, did we get it. Way too much and if it wants to stop now, I’m thinking we would be very happy about that,” Edson Mayor Kevin Zahara said Monday afternoon.
“Really shocking. From one extreme to the next.”
More than 105 millimetres (mm) of rain has fallen in Edson in the past 48 hours and Zahara said the bulk of it — about 85 mm — came over the course of couple of hours Monday morning.
“Which is the types of rainfall you would see over a period of a month. So our infrastructure — no town infrastructure, city infrastructure — can handle that much water at that amount of time.”
Late Monday afternoon, Yellowhead County issued an emergency alert for flash flooding.
“We are experiencing heavy rainfall resulting in overland flooding, snow accumulation, fallen powerlines, and in some areas, power outages,” the Alberta Emergency Alert issued at 4:19 p.m. said.
People were advised to avoid driving through flooded areas, stay away from downed power lines and be prepared for outages.
Just before 6 p.m., the county also said part of a hamlet about 60 kilometres south of Edson and Hinton was being told to evacuate.
An evacuation order is being issued for residents in Lower Robb due to heavy rainfall. They were told to head to a reception centre up the road at the Robb Multiplex/Curling Hall.
As of 1 p.m., the town of Edson said 13 properties had reported flooding but the number is expected to change. Zahara said he’s never seen this much rain or flooding in the community.
During a update in which a state of local emergency was declared by the town due to heavy rainfall and flooding, Zahara became overwhelmed with emotion.
“Listen, folks. This has been incredibly difficult the last number of weeks…” he said, choking up and having to pause to collect himself.
“Today is hard to watch, to see people struggling with their homes… But I am incredibly proud of our staff here at the Town of Edson and our emergency responders. Thank you,” he said through tears.
Zahara said residents are dealing with flooded basements and homes and the flooding is taxing the town’s already exhausted resources.
“We know this is a lot to deal with right now.”
All available staff in the town have pivoted to deal with the flooding.
“We have every available resource within the Town of Edson deployed right now. Many of them were working during the fires as well. So they are a bit taxed and we are looking at bringing additional resources in,” Zahara said.
Phone landlines and internet were also down in the town Monday, which the community noted was an issue with Telus and the telecommunications company was working to fix it.
By declaring the state of local emergency, Zahara said the town will be in contact with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency to get more resources in to help, as well as requesting assistance from surrounding municipalities.
“We’re going to be reaching out to our neighbouring municipalities if they can help support us with some crews, to help our teams to be able to divert this water,” Town CAO Christine Beveridge said during the update.
Some roads have been closed and pumps have been set up to deal with localized flooding in Edson, she added.
The Edson landfill is also closed until further notice due to deteriorating road conditions and bridge concerns, the town said later in the afternoon.
The town noted the storm surge being experienced Monday is unprecedented, adding the majority of the sewer system was designed back in the 1960s and 1970s and is undersized for today’s needs.
“No amount of infrastructure funding and infrastructure upgrades would deal with this kind of rainfall over this short of a period of time,” Zahara said.
The town said once the system becomes overwhelmed, roads become the natural path for runoff to any one of the three creeks that flow through Edson.
With the past few days of continual rainfall, the ground has soaked up as much as moisture as it could, and Edson said the waste treatment system is running at capacity.
“We have pumps that are diverting sanitary past the (sewage) treatment plant to holding ponds to relieve the pressure on our system,” Beveridge said.
“We’ve had over 85 millimetres of rain in a very short time and obviously we’re trying our best to minimize the damage.”
The mayor shared a photo on social media showing Bench Creek through Centennial Park had overflowed its banks and turned into a lake, with water levels reaching a pedestrian bridge that runs through the park in the middle of town.
Beveridge said a “beaver specialist” has been called in to free blockages (presumably caused by beaver dams) downstream on the creek.
An Environment Canada rainfall warning is in effect across much of western Alberta as a long period of heavy rain continues.
Widespread rain amounts of 50 to 80 mm have fallen with some areas receiving over 100 mm so far, the national weather agency said Monday afternoon.
Edmonton itself saw nearly half of the average amount of rain it usually sees for all of June in just one day.
A noon update from Environment Canada said Hendrickson Creek near Grande Cache has received 132.8 mm of rain, while Carrot Creek got 128 mm. Edson is located between those two communities.
Additional amounts of 40 to 80 mm are expected before rain tapers off Tuesday night, the government said.
It was just last Thursday the roughly 8,000 residents of the town in Yellowhead County were allowed to return home, six days after being ordered to evacuate.
On June 9, a massive wildfire sped towards the western Alberta town, fuelled by high temperatures and winds.
That evacuation of both the town and much of the county came a month after a nearly identical situation in early May.
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Edson wildfire evacuation order lifted for a second time -
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Evacuation order partially lifted in Yellowhead County -
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Alberta wildfires: No return date for Edson evacuees -
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Edson, Yellowhead County evacuation to remain until at least Wednesday -
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Alberta wildfires: Rainfall expected to aid firefighters as low-pressure system approaches -
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Wildfire threatening Alberta town explodes in size -
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Edson residents forced to evacuate for 2nd time in 2 months due to wildfires -
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Edson, Yellowhead County ordered to evacuate as wildfires flare up
Monday’s town update was actually supposed to be a wildfire update but that is no longer the main threat to the community.
“At this point in time, we will have a further update later this week as the water is now our issue over fire,” Beveridge said, adding 84 mm of rain has fallen at the head of the wildfire as of Monday morning.
“We still can’t let our guard down as as when conditions dry, we’ll start to see more risk again. But at this moment in time, it’s really about the water.”
The flooding comes as the town is still working to get back to normal after the wildfire evacuations.
Beveridge praised the patience of residents and the efforts of workers to re-open stores and restore services and utilities.
She said ATCO Gas has gotten 3,400 homes back online since last week. She thanked all the help provided by other municipalities in recent weeks, including the City of Edmonton which opened a reception centre.
“It’s second-to-none when it comes to how our residents were treated. It’s just been … amazing.”
The wildfire danger is low in the Edson area now and while the fire burning near town is still classified as out of control, Alberta Wildfire said little fire spread is forecasted due to the mild weather.
“I wish we would have had some of this rain a few weeks ago,” Zahara said.
“Obviously, this is going to help our wildfire situation, but has brought a whole bunch of new problems to our community.”
Zahara said administration would have a further update on Tuesday.
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