‘One-in-one-hundred-year flood’
Evacuees in Fort Mcmurray have to wait for ‘unpredictable’ ice jam to melt
Residents of the Fort Mcmurray area being evacuated for the second time in four years will have to wait for the now 24-kilometre-long ice jam causing major flooding to melt, the Alberta government said Tuesday.
At least 13,000 residents of Fort Mcmurray were forced to leave their homes beginning Sunday as water levels on the Athabasca River rose as much as six metres.
Since Sunday, the Clearwater River has risen three-quarters of a metre, and an ice jam 38 kilometres long on the Peace River threatens Fort Vermillion and nearby communities. States of local emergency remain in effect in both Fort Mcmurray and Mackenzie County.
“This is a very serious situation. Ice jam floods are very unpredictable, and conditions can change quickly with little warning. There is no reasonable engineering solution to unlock the ice jams at this point — we have to rely on warm weather to soften the ice,” said Environment and Parks Minister Jason Nixon at a news conference Tuesday.
The ice jams are melting and breaking ice downstream under sunny conditions, however, said Colleen Walford, river forecaster at Environment and Parks.
Josh Knelson, reeve of Mackenzie County, where at least 451 people have been evacuated, said that in some areas, there was no realistic way to prevent flooding by sandbagging because of the size of ice jams.
“It’s merely just begging the good Lord to have mercy on us,” said Knelson.
Nixon said the province was satisfied that it and the municipalities had the resources to bring the situation under control without direct help from the federal government.
Don Scott, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, said while the possibility of military intervention has been considered, it would not work.
“It’s the sheer size of the ice jam itself that prevents the military from using explosives,” said Scott.
Scott called it a “one-inone-hundred-year flood,” and encouraged Albertans to donate to the Red Cross.
“Basically, we’re going to be waiting on mother nature for a while.”
The flooding has led to evacuation orders for some residents of Fort Mcmurray, Fort Vermilion and Tallcree First Nation at Beaver Ranch.
Shane Schrieber, managing director of the Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said that safe, separate accommodations such as hotels, motels and work camps were accommodating evacuees, rather than communal emergency shelters, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.