Some 40 Irvine area residents will have to wait at least a day or two before knowing whether they can move back home, following their evacuation on Friday morning due to rising flood waters.
And even then there’s no guarantee they’ll be able to re-occupy those homes because of water damage, according to Medicine Hat Fire Chief Ron Robinson.
That will depend on such things as the advice of structural engineers and insurance adjusters.
It was Robinson’s fire services department that received a request for assistance from Cypress County about 7:40 a.m. Friday to help rescue Irvine residents on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway.
Other areas such as Cypress Hills and Walsh also saw some problems, but according to Cypress County manager Lutz Perschon it was the Town Of Irvine and the nearby Mavista Acres subdivision south of Irvine that the co-ordinated efforts of the Redcliff RCMP, Cypress County emergency services, and the City of Medicine Hat emergency services team focused on.
“I’ve lived here 31 years and haven’t seen anything anywhere close to this,” said Perschon in a telephone interview Friday. “I have never seen the Trans-Canada Highway breached the way it was in this event. I spoke with one of the local residents south of Irvine, who is 80 years old, and he had never seen anything like this either.”
According to Redcliff RCMP Sgt. Duncan MacInnis, NCO in charge of Redcliff Traffic Services, Zodiac boats were brought in by the Medicine Hat Fire Department to assist in the evacuations. As well, city busses were provided to transport those who needed it to the city, where they could be taken care of.
Others who had to be evacuated, were able to find shelter with friends or family members in the area.
The HALO Emergency Helicopter, operated by the Southern Alberta MedicAir Society, was also on hand to help with evacuations of those that even the Zodiacs couldn’t reach because of the raging flood waters.
Redcliff RCMP officers were out in force to assist in redirecting traffic, as Highway 41 south to the Cypress Hills, and the Trans-Canada Highway east of Medicine Hat to the Saskatchewan border were closed to traffic.
Even ranchers Doug and Gayle Neubauer, who ranch five miles north of the Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park, on Bow Trail Road, was impacted.
The three major creeks flowing north from the Hills to the South Saskatchewan River had received well in excess of 80 millimetres over the past few days and were the highest he’s seen them in the past 50 years or so.
“It’s causing damage to our livestock — cows and calves trampling down into the creek and getting washed away,” Doug explained. “We’ve had five snow storms since April and it’s all cumulative damage. We’ve had all the moisture we need and the last two storms have been just an aggravation.”
Streamflow conditions aren’t expected to improve over the next day or so, according to Robinson.
As a result of lower level flooding there are now ditches full to capacity and that wave will be coming toward Medicine Hat probably in the next 24-48 hours.
In addition, there continues to be a flood watch on the three tributary creeks coming from the Cypress Hills — Ross, Bullshead and Seven Persons — which could see some of the presently flooded areas hit once again.
There’s also a high stream advisory for the South Saskatchewan River, which may yet be adjusted upward over the weekend.
“Our role is to monitor the situation for the next 24-48 hours,” said Robinson. “And then there’s another system coming behind this one.”
In the interim, the provincial government is continuing its efforts to determine whether a disaster recovery program is warranted for the area, following the eight significant precipitation events since the beginning of April.
Article and photo compliments of Medicine Hat News
