State of emergency for overland flooding continues in Taber area

A state of emergency for overland flooding continues in the Taber area of southern Alberta after a huge amount of snow started to melt, a public works official tells CBC News.

"This is not a normal situation," says Jeremy Wickson, the public works director for the Municipal District of Taber.

"We had an exorbitant amount of snow in February and March, similar to Calgary, and we are experiencing overland flooding at this time."

The M.D. issued an alert Friday night, advising residents to "take necessary precautions."

Wickson says that while the number of affected homes is in the double digits, most of the danger has been managed.

"Minor damage to roadways and infrastructure. More threats to two houses more than anything, and most of that has been mitigated at this point, but we don't know what coming weeks will bring," he said.

"We are actively monitoring it."

He said he expects flooding issues could move north shortly.

"I would expect this event is probably going to go for from three to four weeks."

The municipal district is divided by the Old Man River.

"Right now we are only experiencing flooding in the south but previous history tells us that the north will flood," Wickson said.

"Temperature is a big factor. When we've got temperatures typically five to 10 degrees higher than Calgary, we get the melt-off soon and quicker. Nine out of 10 Christmases down here are brown."

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