A local state of emergency was declared for the Municipality of Crowsnest Pass at 7 a.m. on Thursday, June 20th due to a flash flood caused by heavy rainfall and high water.
The extreme weather has also triggered several road closures of streets in Blairmore and road bridges on 19th Avenue, 20th Avenue and 21st Avenue have been blocked.
Municipal Operations staffs, Firefighters, RCMP and EMS were all on scene working to clear debris and water from roads.
By 10 a.m. on Thursday, around ten homes had been evacuated to the Coleman Sport Complex, which served as a reception centre for affected residents.
The Community Peace Officers and Fire Department reported that it was around 6 a.m. when the river levels spiked to record levels and action was taken by emergency crew members.
Mayor Bruce Decoux said that the river and water levels were monitored throughout the night prior to Thursday.
“A watch is a watch. We don’t take action until the watch reaches a crisis level.”
Frank Besinger, the Director of Planning and Engineering for the Municipality said that all the equipment and resources were on scene to help remove the debris that was blocking pinch points around the community of Blairmore, specifically the bridges and water crossings.
The Oldman river Dam flood gates were opened Thursday morning to alleviate upstream water flows.
“It was crucial that we made sure the water can pass through,” said Besinger.
The peak of the state of emergency occurred at around 8:30 a.m.
The community of Hillcrest had a power outage at around 8 a.m. on Thursday morning that lasted approximately 20 minutes. High water levels and flooding affected a number of residences in Hillcrest, similar to Blairmore.
Highway 3 was not closed during the time of the flood, but parts of Highway 22, specifically around Chapel Rock did, and were closed for several hours.
