Flooding follows fire in central Alberta as wildfire evacuees prepare to return home in the north

Heavy rainfall across central and western Alberta has been a mixed blessing as more wildfire evacuees are preparing to return home.

The downpour follows one of the hottest Mays on record for Canada as wildfires spread throughout a dry Alberta. After a short reprieve, early June saw wildfires again tearing through forest regions. 

Among the communities evacuated were Edson and Yellowhead County in central Alberta — for the second time this season — and Fort Chipewyan, about 730 kilometres northeast of Edmonton.

The evacuation order for Fort Chipewyan will soon be lifted. Evacuation orders for Edson and Yellowhead County were lifted late last week.

But Edson, 200 kilometres west of Edmonton, is now dealing with flooding. It declared a state of local emergency Monday.

Mayor Kevin Zahara said in an online video update around noon that Edson will be in contact with the Alberta Emergency Management Agency and will ask for assistance from neighbouring municipalities.

Pumps are being set up on at least one overflowing street and there is localized flooding in various neighbourhoods, Zahara said.

Thirteen properties have reported flooding so far and internet and phone lines are down. The fire south of Edson remains out of control but has received around 84 millimetres of rainfall within a span of hours — an amount more typically seen over a period of a month, he said.

"No town infrastructure, city infrastructure can handle that much water in that amount of time," he said.

A visibly emotional Zahara ended the update by reiterating how difficult the last weeks have been.

"Today is hard to watch. To see people struggling with their homes. But I'm incredibly proud of our staff here at the town of Edson and all of our emergency responders."

An emergency alert for flash flooding was issued for all of Yellowhead County on Monday afternoon and an evacuation order for the Lower Robb area was issued around 6 p.m.

Environment Canada has issued a rainfall warning for western and central Alberta.

In Alberta's mountain parks, a snowfall warning is in place for Highway 93.

Evacuation orders lifting for Fort Chip

In Fort Chipewyan, home to members of the Mikisew Cree First Nation, Fort Chipewyan Métis Nation and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, an evacuation order in place for nearly three weeks is about to lift.

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo said the southern perimeter of the fire is now under control and the evacuation order can be lifted once all essential services in the community are ready.

A timeline of return is detailed in three phases, starting with essential workers on Monday followed by the general public and land users on Thursday. In the third phase, vulnerable individuals and people with mobility needs will be welcomed back.

The regional municipality says it is working with the three nations, along with other agencies, on the re-entry plan.

Rainfall follows dry summer start

Sara Hoffman, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, said this weekend's heavy rainfall in central and west Alberta follows above normal temperatures and below average precipitation at the start of June.

"We're definitely seeing an improvement in conditions," she said in an interview Monday.

"The wildfire group will definitely be happy to see any amount of rain in the forecast."

Hoffman said areas affected by the heavy rainfall are catching up to normal precipitation levels for this time of year. But other regions remain in deficit. The province's northwest is still dry, she said.

Hoffman said the rainfall is expected to continue for another day, coming to northeastern and eastern portions of the province.

Then the weather is predicted to shift to more typical temperatures for this time of year — daytime highs in the low 20s — with spotty showers and thunderstorms.

"Hopefully, that will give us a bit of a break from all the extremes," she said.

Alberta Wildfire information officer Josee St-Onge said Monday that when there is a lot of rain in a short time, sometimes it runs off instead of being absorbed.

"We'll have to see and take some measurements in the coming weeks to see how everything bounces back, but it certainly puts us in a much better situation than we were a few weeks ago," St-Onge said.

Serious downpours can keep firefighters indoors, she said. But otherwise rainfall will diminish wildfire activity, giving Alberta Wildfire time to make progress and reassess for long-term planning rather than respond to an emerging crisis.

St-Onge said massive wildfires will continue to burn underground even if they receive significant rain.

"While the rain does bring some relief and some temporary help, these are very large wildfires that will still take weeks if not months to fully extinguish," she said.

"While this is great for the time being, it doesn't mean that we can take our foot off the accelerator. We still have a lot of work to do."

There were 74 wildfires in the province's forest protection areas as of Monday afternoon. Of those, 17 are considered out of control.

According to the Alberta Wildfire dashboard, more than 1.4 million hectares have burned this year, surpassing the previous record of 1.3 million set in 1981.