LAC LA BICHE - The State of Local Emergency throughout Lac La Biche County has ended.
Municipal officials implemented the emergency measure last Tuesday in the facing pressures of overland flood waters coming on the heels of historic rainfall amounts.
While the after-effects of much of the excess water are still visible — crews continue to pump water across Highway 55 and some rural roads are still blocked by floodwaters — the municipality's emergency command officials have determined enough headway has been made to end the safety measure.
"Due to the improving flooding situation, we no longer require the additional powers that declaring a State of Local Emergency enables," notes a statement issued by municipal authorities late Thursday afternoon. "We would like to once again thank all of our community members for their patience, cooperation and resiliency during this challenging week."
The main reason the State of Local Emergency was implemented was to enable municipal officials to call for mandatory evacuations of Lac La Biche County areas. According to the province's Emergency Management Act, other measures available to authorities during a state of local emergency include the ability to freeze pricing on goods and services to avoid the potential for price gauging, restrict any and all travel within the jurisdiction, the closure of outdoor gathering places like playgrounds, the unrestricted access to any property by officials carrying out the emergency plan, the demolition of any trees or crops in order to reduce the emergency threat.
On the mandatory evacuation orders were used during the county's week of local emergency.
"The biggest reason, and the reason we did it, was to perform mandatory evacuations which was in the case of immediate threat to life," said Lac La Biche County interim CAO Ken Van Buul, adding that the risk levels run from human lives to the environment and infrastructure.
When the first evacuation order was called on Sunday night, it was said the more than 80 residents in the western portion of the Lac La Biche hamlet and some rural residences were in possible danger of a wall of flood water rushing towards them if portions of the nearby railway tracks collapsed under the pressure of large pools of water being held back. A second evacuation order was issued two days later for residents north of the Kilometre 7 marker on the Old Conklin Road.
Both of those evacuation orders have since been lifted.
Municipal and provincial officials are still working in several areas to reduce the amount of groundwater in the area. Regular updates from municipal authorities are expected as the threat levels change.
