The Municipal District of Taber in southern Alberta has lifted a local state of emergency after seven weeks of what the region called "unprecedented overland flooding."
On Friday, the M.D. announced that although a significant amount of overland floodwater remains on farmland, and approximately 80 kilometres of road are still closed due to damage, the state of emergency has been called off.
Reservoir and lake levels are stabilizing and repairs to municipal infrastructure have begun, the district said in a release.
During the emergency, municipal crews recorded 831 sites that experienced overland flooding and 465 of those had damaged infrastructure.
The total cost to repair the damaged infrastructure is being estimated at $1.2 million, and the cost of flood mitigation was estimated at $450,000.
Derrick Krizsan, the municipal administrator for the M.D. of Taber, described the flooding at the time the alert was issued as "catastrophic." He said the situation could be economically disastrous for the region — which is one of the province's agricultural centres — as it forced farmers to delay seeding.
The M.D. plans to apply to Alberta's Disaster Recovery Program for relief.
Crews are continuing to pump water from several sites in the region, including at Lost Lake, Barnwell and a number of roads and intersections.