Flooded road in Sexsmith (Photo: Shane Clausing)

By Shane Clausing

Sexsmith flooding

Town of Sexsmith responds to overland flooding

Apr 21, 2020 | 1:25 PM

UPDATE Friday April 24: The overland flooding alert for the Town of Sexsmith has been cancelled.

On Monday night, the Grande Prairie Regional Emergency Partnership (GPREP) issued an overland flooding alert for the Town of Sexsmith as flooding was occurring in low lying areas.

The flooding had occurred because of the large amounts of snow that was melting in and around the town.

A majority of the flooding occurred on the north side of the town. Sexsmith Mayor Kate Potter says it’s too early to say what type of damage has been done.

“There is some obvious damage in different places. The train tracks that run right through Sexsmith have been washed out right underneath in quite a number of places. We do know that there’s been water taken in, in some residences, but until we are finished with the emergency flood mitigations, we won’t know exactly where that all stands.”

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A flooded road in a neighbourhood in Sexsmith (Photo: Shane Clausing)

Potter went on to say that there was water up to some house’s front door steps last night, but as of Tuesday morning it had since receded.

“We’ll monitor it again tonight and see if we get the same amount of flow (of water) as we had last night or increased flow again,” said Potter ”If the water goes down that’ll be critical as far as assessing what damage there is and things we can do.”

Mayor Potter says that the town is waiting to implement their flood mitigation plan, which would include funding from the provincial and federal governments.

Money from the plan would go towards helping reduce flooding in the town and is crucial to preventing more floods in the future.

“We did receive provincial flood mitigation funding last December, but unfortunately we’re not allowed to use any of that money until we hear from the federal government and whether we’ve been approved on that side. That money’s just sitting there waiting. We have a flood mitigation plan that we would like to start construction on, which would involve building more berms, but that is in limbo until that federal government money comes through or we hear that we’ve not been successful in obtaining it.”

Photo: Shane Clausing

If the project is approved, the federal government would supply the town with $1.3 million to help with the project, while the province will give $1.1 million, the town would pay around $900,000. The County of Grande Prairie will also help with funding as well. Potter adds that she hopes the project can begin this summer.

The Mayor also wanted to thank everyone who helped come to the town last night to help combat the flooding.

Flooding has been an issue so far this spring across the Peace Region. An Overland Flooding Alert was issued in both the M.D. of Fairview and Birch Hills County on Tuesday morning. The Town of Peace River is also continuing cleanup of a flood in its downtown area on Saturday night.