FORT ASSINIBOINE — Woodlands County has submitted an application to the province’s Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) for more than $10.3 million to recover its various equipment/manpower costs and help cover the uninsurable damage resulting from the wildfires that occurred in May and the flooding that started in June.
That was one of the highlights in a report from manager of protective services Sheldon Schoepp to Woodlands County councillors at their Aug. 16 meeting, which detailed the county’s response to both the fires and floods.
While the costs of the fires and floods were high to both the county and local residents, Schoepp noted one important takeaway: there was no loss of life.
“For me, that’s a win. Nobody got killed,” he said.
On May 5, three fires popped up that affected Woodlands County, though "the one that really got our attention” due to its close proximity was the Shining Bank fire south of Township Road 570 and West of Range Road 130, said Schoepp.
This fire, which burned approximately 19,672 hectares, was approximately 27 kilometres southwest from the Town of Whitecourt’s southern footprint border, indicated Schoepp.
There was also the Fox Creek fire approximately 47 kilometres west of Whitecourt’s western footprint border, which burned over 66,443 hectares, and the Swan Hills fire 16 kilometres northwest of the town, which burned 124,000 hectares.
All three fires were caused by lightning strikes, Schoepp noted.
To be prepared, Woodlands County undertook some precautionary measures to prepare local residents, such as setting up structural protection equipment on roughly 10 county residences in the Anselmo area.
They also rented a structural protection unit from the Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) and placed three 400-barrel water tanks around the Anselmo and West Mountain Road areas to help with water sources for firefighting operations.
“As you know, water sources are very sparse out there,” said Schoepp.
As well, Woodlands County put a local fire safety contractor on standby to help with firefighting operations and put implemented roaming fire watch crews to keep an eye on the Shining Bank fire for roughly seven days.
In addition to contacting residents by phone or in-person to warn them of the danger, Woodlands County also put out an evacuation alert for the southern portion of the county, warning residents to be ready to leave within 30 minutes.
Ultimately, however, no Woodlands County residents were affected by the fires, and the county has submitted an application to the DRP for $112,936 to cover all these expenses, Schoepp indicated.
Flooding effects
Far more serious in terms of impact were the floods from the Athabasca and McLeod Rivers on June 20, which occurred as the result of high rains to the north, northwest and west of Woodlands County.
Schoepp said evacuation alerts were immediately issued that day for Flatbush Road, Old Ferry Road, Cutbanks Road, the Eagle River Outfitters area and east of Fort Assiniboine along Township Road 620A.
A day later, evacuation orders were enacted for those same areas with the assistance of the RCMP and various fire departments.
On June 21, the county declared a State of Local Emergency (SOLE), which was renewed a week later and then terminated on July 5.
Woodlands County put pre-emptive emergency operations in place by building a berm on Township Road 620 and arranging for sandbags to be ready, which cost an estimated $89,300.
Schoepp said the rental of a SHERP (a type of vehicle that can handle soggy terrain), a helicopter for site visits, fire rescue crew hours and county employee emergency operation hours added another $77,000 to the county’s expenses.
Food and hotel vouchers were provided to the 182 evacuated residents who checked in with the reception centres at Whitecourt and Fort Assiniboine. A total of 70 hotel vouchers, 138 breakfast vouchers, 170 lunch vouchers and 193 dinner vouchers were handed out, totalling $25,000.
Throughout the county, an estimated 14 sites such as roads and culverts experienced uninsurable damage, which Schoepp estimated to cost $531,500. The washout of three bridges added another $30,000, while the damage to the Groat Creek campground accounted for $25,000.
Due to the "massive county-wide infrastructure damage,” Schoepp said an estimated $9 million has been estimated for potential mitigation projects. As well, an estimated 225 county residents were affected by the flooding.
Ultimately, a DRP application has been submitted for the county to receive $10.192 million from the DRP.
Coun. Peter Kuelken noted he was surprised to find no mention in Schoepp’s report regarding the flooding of the Freeman River, which is often prone to flash floods.
Schoepp said he was told by the river forecasting department that they have very few indicators on that river, which is why they never received a warning about flash flooding in that area.
When he met a representative of the department in the actual vicinity of Freeman River, he said the representative “could not believe what was going on” because they had no indications.
“I mentioned to them that we, as Woodlands County, need to sit down with them face-to-face and discuss where we are and where we’re going, because as you said, (Freeman River) is prone to flooding,” he said, noting he had no indication of when that meeting would occur.
Kuelken asked if there was something council could do to hurry that process along or ensure it happened, noting that they had made Alberta Transportation aware of the problems with the Fort Assiniboine bridge for 15 years and nothing was done until a hole appeared.
Schoepp asked Kuelken to provide him some comments and he would follow up with the department representative.
Communication problems
Coun. John Burrows told Schoepp that during the last zone meeting for the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, a resolution had been passed indicating that communications between the municipalities and various provincial agencies handling the fires and floods “were not working out well.”
The resolution further calls for the association to engage with the appropriate agencies to develop a long-term strategy for the resourcing and management of wildfires outside of the Forest Protection Area.
Burrows also noted that municipalities had been asking the province for weeks to implement fire bans, and while the election was going on, it seemed like there were no resources available when the fire season started.
Schoepp said that during the wildfires, there would be switch outs of teams overseeing operations, and while the first one or two went smoothly, it became more difficult to get updates from the government.
He said they were reaching out to them “constantly” to find out where they were at and where things were going.
Schoepp said a debriefing must still occur with Alberta Wildfire — they are still dealing with several emergencies — but he would stress the need for better communications.
“We don’t know what the future holds, so I want to make sure corrective actions are taken,” he said.
