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New flood watch issued for Clearwater River near Rocky Mountain House

Lots of Alberta Parks closures are in effect in the Rocky-Nordegg region
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(Black Press fie photo).

A flood watch has been issued for the Clearwater River and Little Red Deer River basin near Rocky Mountain House, along with some park and road closures.

On Friday morning there were flood warnings issued for these two rivers, but they were were downgraded to flood watches later in the day as Alberta Environment believes most major rivers flowing out of the foothills have now peaked.

While water levels in most rivers flowing out of the foothills in central and southern Alberta have continued to fall, continued precipitation in the West Country around Rocky and Nordegg is creating potential flooding concerns.

A flood watch were also issued by Alberta Environment for Pipestone River, while there are stream-flow advisories for the Brazeau River, Ram River, Prairie Creek, Baptiste River and Nordegg River.

While the low pressure system that brought rain to much of Alberta this week has moved into Saskatchewan, 10 to 30 millimetres of rainfall are expected in central portions of the province throughout Friday. The largest amounts of rain were expected to fall from last night throughout today.

Flood peaks in the major rivers are expected to move across the province over the remainder of the week.

So far, flood mitigation infrastructure continues to hold and there has been no major flooding. (Albertans can monitor the flood peaks using near real-time water levels and river flows on rivers.alberta.ca and the Alberta Rivers app.)

The Government of Alberta continues to work with affected municipalities through the Alberta Emergency Management Agency.

Motorists should be aware that Highway 734 is closed south of North Ram Bridge. (Highway 40 between Kananaskis Lake Trail and Highwood House is now open.)

The risk of flooding has also necessitated some parks closures.

The current park closures include: Crescent Falls provincial recreation area, Seven Mile provincial recreation area, Prairie Creek provincial recreation area, Tay River provincial recreation area, Medicine Lake provincial recreation area, Red Lodge Provincial Park, Strachan provincial recreation area, McKinnon Flats day-use area, access roads to Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park

All campgrounds are now open, but visitors in affected campgrounds are being notified of severe weather and high water levels and should be prepared to evacuate on short notice.

More information is available at albertaparks.ca.

Albertans in affected areas should look for updates regarding evacuations and closures and download the Alberta Emergency Alert app. For the latest information on river conditions, visit rivers.alberta.ca or download the Alberta Rivers app.