Hundreds flee homes in northern Alberta due to flooding
CBC
Residents in the northern Alberta community of Chateh, west of High Level, could be out of their homes for several months after flooding forced them to flee on Sunday and Monday.
Some 1,100 people left the community on the Dene Tha' First Nation as water in the Sousa Creeks, basin and surrounding waterways continued to rise in the previous few days.
Chateh is about 850 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.
Chief James Ahnassay of the Dene Tha' First Nation, said many people are staying in motels in High Level but some are sleeping on mats in the local arena.
"I feel very concerned," Ahnassay told CBC News Monday.
"I'm praying and hoping everybody will be able to work together, keep each other as family or friends, support each other, until all this is over and they begin to go home one family at a time or whatever the case might be."
Ahnassay said residents who live on higher ground may be able to go home soon, once roads are repaired, but it may take months for the rest.
"Probably by July, latter part of July, maybe," Ahnassay said.
Every year, the water level near the community usually rises with the spring thaw, Ahnassay noted, but it didn't flood the community until last year, when it rained significantly.
It then took weeks for water levels to subside enough for residents to return, but this year he expects it will take even longer.
"This is the worst flooding we ever had," Ahnassay said.
Ahnassay attributed the cumulative effects of climate change, deforestation, construction and more precipitation for the higher likelihood of flooding.
Ric McIver, Alberta's minister of municipal affairs, said a First Nations' liaison is on site to help with the emergency response team on the ground.
"We're using the Tiger Dams which are a temporary flood mitigation method and we will increase our response as the situation requires," McIver told media on Monday.
The Rachel Notley government's consumer carbon tax wound up becoming a weapon the UCP wielded to drum the Alberta NDP out of office. But that levy-and-repayment program, and the wide-ranging "climate leadership plan" around it, also stood as the NDP's boldest, provincial-reputation-altering move in their single-term tenure.