Multiple communities bracing for flooding, system backups around Edmonton

Tofield residents have been asked to limit their non-essential water use after heavy rain left the wastewater system at capacity.

Rain is causing overland flooding or stressing municipal water systems throughout the capital region.

Residents in multiple counties and cities were still being asked Monday to restrict their water use to only essential activities amid reports of backups.

“We just tried flushing one of the toilets and it was gurgling, so I know I’m getting close to it coming in the building. Hopefully it doesn’t,” said Dale Erickson, the owner of a meat-processing plant in Tofield, southeast of Edmonton.

His business, Tofield Packers, was one of two closed because of flooding in the area near 51 Street and 46 Avenue. On the other side of 51 Street, water surrounded Beaver Hill Motel.

“The basement in the office is already flooded,” owner Nahid Karalic told CTV News Edmonton Monday morning.

“If we have to go, we have to go.”

The town declared a state of local emergency Sunday evening.

While Tofield residents have been told to prepare for a potential evacuation, for now, they have only been asked to refrain from showering, flushing toilets and using laundry machines and dishwashers.

Mayor Adam Hall said “everything is still moving” for the time being, but that the amount of water in the area is a concern.

“I don’t know if we’ve seen that much water in that area ever before,” he noted.

“The sewer wastewater is under control, but it is a taxed system at this moment, so any extra flow of water into the sewer system is going to be a problem.”

In case residents of either the town or Beaver County need to leave their home, Tofield has opened an evacuation centre in the community hall, although Hall called it a precaution.

Advisories remain in effect for:

• Beaumont;
• Parkland County and Wabamun;
• Edmonton;
• Tofield and Beaver County;
• Stony Plain; and
• Lac Ste. Anne.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nicole Lampa and Evan Klippenstein