RCMP Flood Update for High River - Bragg Creek - Canmore - Banff - Turner Valley

RCMP Alberta Media Relations at 2:28 pm, June 21,2013

This is an update from the RCMP in Southern Alberta in regards to the flood situation.

High River - Full evacuation in order

Today 40 officers will conduct door to door checks of houses and locations;
RCMP officers and first responders will either use vehicles, boats or be dropped in by helicopters in order to complete the search.

Bragg Creek - Full evacuation in order - No road access

Today officers will conduct door to door checks of houses and locations;
RCMP officers and first responders will either be taken by boat or dropped in by helicopters in order to complete the search.

Canmore - Partial evacuation - Shelter in place

Today officers will conduct door to door to check every houses / locations in order to ensure no one has remained behind;
RCMP officers and first responders will either use vehicles, boats or be dropped in by helicopters in order to complete the search;
Highway 1 is under water on both sides of Canmore;

Banff - Isolated due to road closures both East and West

The Town of Banff is not under evacuation;
Highway 1 is under water on the Alberta side of Town;
There are localized mud slides on the West side of town.

Turner Valley - partially evacuated and Sour Gas (H2S) update

100 to 150 people are evacuated due to the sour gas leak;
The evacuation is a precautionary measure and relates to the sour gas breech;
Other residents are advised to stay indoors;
Officials advised that this leak is of a low risk to the public and to the environment;
further information can be found at http://www.emergencyalert.alberta.ca/alerts/2013/06/1783.html .
RCMP have requested four aircraft from the Department of National Defence. Currently two helicopters have been deployed.

Two civilian helicopters as well as RCMP Helicopter and fixed wing airplane are being used at this time.

It is believed that so far there may be four casualties as a result of this incident in the High River area.

1. Yesterday two males were seen floating lifeless in the Highwood River in the High River area. However, no bodies were located.
2. Yesterday a female was swept away with her camper in the Longview area of the Highwood River. She has not yet been located.
3. Yesterday a male was observed falling from a canoe on the Highwood River in the High River area. It is unknown if he was able to get back in the canoe.

RCMP officers work and live the affected communities and 13 officers and support staff have either lost their homes or have suffered significant property damage. In many cases these employees were on duty and have not been able to attend to their homes as they were working to ensure public safety.

RCMP officers would like to caution the public, evacuees and citizens rendering assistance, to be very cautious near water and to call 911 if they see someone is in need of assistance.

Emergency Response
The RCMP is asking all citizens to help the authorities who are responding to this emergency by observing these restrictions:

• Do not drive to or near affected areas unless you are involved in the emergency response. Extra traffic will prevent the authorities from responding quickly. Pedestrians are asked to stay off all bridges. 
• Do not use the phone unless you are requesting help or reporting an important event.
• Unnecessary phone calls could overload the telephone system and limit the authorities' ability to communicate.

More information can be found at the following websites:

http://www.emergencyalert.alberta.ca/

http://www.albertahealthservices.ca/8644.asp

http://511.alberta.ca/ab/en.html

http://environment.alberta.ca/01547.html

http://www.albertaparks.ca/advisories

http://www.aema.alberta.ca/personal_emergency_preparedness.cfm

http://www.aema.alberta.ca/recovery_advice.cfm

http://weather.gc.ca/warnings/index_e.html?prov=ab