Residents of the northern Alberta community of Fort McMurray may well be forgiven for being more than a little jumpy right now.
You may remember the town’s name.
It was four years ago next month that a wildfire of biblical proportions ripped through the community, forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.
You likely saw the pictures.
Smoke and flames from the wildfire erupt behind a car on the highway near Fort McMurray on May 7, 2016. (Mark Blinch/Reuters)
Now, the people in the town and surrounding area face a crisis of a different sort–the spring ice breakup on the Athabasca River, that brings a high risk of flash flooding.
For several days last week, officials were monitoring an ice jam about 10 kilometres upstream from Fort McMurray.
Early Sunday morning, it let loose.
Phil Meagher poses next to a huge ice chunk on the Athabasca River near Fort McMurray on Sunday. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Phil Meagher)
Fort McMurray quickly declared a secondary state of local emergency–on top of an initial state of local emergency declared last month because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Every year the ice breaks and we have some sort of event. Usually the ice flows on by. Once approximately every 20 years we have something different happen,” Don Scott, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo, told the Canadian Press in a phone interview Sunday.
“This happens to be that year.” Scott told CP’s Rob Drinkwater.
Some people, already ordered to leave their homes, are now staying at local hotels.
Meanwhile, reports of discolouration in tap water in Fort McMurray have prompted a boil water advisory in some areas.
There were voluntary and mandatory evacuations around Fort McMurray on Sunday as water levels rose. (Steven Garcia/via CBC News)
Scott told CBC News’ Andrew Jeffrey that Fort McMurray has faced similar floods because of ice jams, in 1997 and 1977, adding that evacuees so far have been calm and diligent while looking out for one another.
“I’ve always said if any region knows how to respond to an emergency it’s us,” Scott told Jeffrey.
“Because we’ve obviously experienced a few over the years.”
With files from CBC News (Andrew Jeffrey), The Canadian Press (Rob Drinkwater)
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