Drumheller orders residents to leave as flood waters rise on Rosebud River

The Town of Drumheller has issued a mandatory evacuation order for the residents of Wayne and Highway 10X due to high water levels in the Rosebud River.

In a statement Monday evening, the town said Drumheller fire crews will be going door-to-door notifying residents of the order.

The province warned Drumheller and Wheatland County earlier in the day over the high water levels, with Drumheller also on alert over a rising Red Deer River.

All evacuated residents must register with the reception centre at the Drumheller Stampede and Agricultural Society building, or advise the town’s emergency management team of where they will be staying, the town stated.

As flooding hit southern Alberta over the last few days, Ed Sonmor watched his business on the banks of the Rosebud River transform from an RV park into “oceanfront property.”

With the long-delayed melt of a heavy snowpack finally underway, more communities felt the impact of overland flooding Monday, with the village of Beiseker declaring a local state of emergency and Alberta Environment putting Red Deer and Kneehill counties on alert.

For Sonmor, who owns and operates the High Eagle RV Park in Wheatland County near Rosebud with his wife Jeanne, rising river water meant his campground’s serviced lots, office, confectionary, bandstand and rental RV were all under a metre of water Monday.

The couple, who had planned to open their park next week, intend to rebuild and reopen this summer despite the damage.

Michael Ziehr, manager of transportation and utilities for Wheatland County east of Calgary, said the municipality isn’t aware of any homes damaged in the hamlet of Rosebud from the high water levels in the Rosebud River.

But overland flooding damaged some houses in Carseland and Gleichen through sewer backup, he said. “We have close to 100 roads probably under water right now in different sections of the county,” added Ziehr.

In Beiseker, chief administrative officer Jo Lambert said melting snow from surrounding fields inundated the natural drainage canals that help protect the village from flooding.

She said there was water over some of the community’s roads and at least a dozen homes had basement flooding due to storm sewers backing up. Only one home had actual overland flooding at this point, said Lambert.

“Our biggest worry ... is that we haven’t peaked yet. Beiseker is kind of at the bottom of a bowl and all the surrounding fields in Rocky View County drain into Beiseker,” said Lambert, who is hoping the water will crest by Wednesday.

Khaled Akhtar, a river forecaster with Alberta Environment, said this winter’s snowfall was not abnormally high but cool temperatures through early spring meant this year’s melt is happening all at once.

“It is all rushing towards the small creeks and some of the culverts, which are already blocked with ice or some other things,” he said. “It’s backing up, causing the localized flooding.”

Kneehill County Reeve Jerry Wittstock said overland flooding isn’t unusual in the area in the spring, but “we have locations in the county that, yeah, they are seeing a lot more water flow than we’ve had.”

A streamflow advisory is in place for the Red Deer River downstream of Red Deer while flood watches are in place for Little Red Deer River, Medicine River, Lasthill Creek, Kneehills Creek, Threehills Creek, Waskasoo Creek and the Rosebud River. In southern Alberta, local state of emergencies due to overland flooding remain in place in Vulcan County, Forty Mile County, the MD of Taber and the Siksika Nation.