Residents of Wayne and Highway 10X are sighing a breath of relief as water levels from the Rosebud River are now receding.
The evacuation for the area lifted on Wednesday, April 25 at approximately 2:00 p.m., and the local state of emergency lifted on Thursday, April 26 at 9:30 a.m. Highway 10x is now open to all traffic.
Drumheller Mayor Heather Colberg sees the lift on both states as a victory for everyone.
“I am so happy, people just want to get back home, get settled and make sure their homes are safe so I am ecstatic that it is lifted and life can get back to normal,” said Colberg.
She believes in the community in times like these and is proud to see their support shine through.
“It’s been absolutely amazing. We had a wonderful team organizing and making sure that we are looking after the community. We are just so fortunate that we have so many strong leaders in the community that stepped up,” said Colberg.
Drumheller’s Fire Chief Bruce Wade gave an updated report on the water levels in the area summarizing that the water levels are gradually going down.
The water’s peak height was expected to top out at 12:00 p.m. noon on Wednesday.
“All of the tributaries look like they are levelling off and going down,” said Wade. “The Kneehill Creek is still going down by five centimeters from the gauge.”
He reported that the Dixon Dam is releasing 16 cubes per second and will not release any increased amount until it is safe to do so. The Redland gauge is consistently dropping.
“It looks like everything is going in the right direction,” said Wade. “We are watching it diligently and hopefully we are on the downhill trend.”
David Hardy was not too concerned about the river. He explained that after living at their property for 63 years, ‘this is not the worst flood ever’ living just past the second bridge to Wayne.
“The water got up but it never affected any of our property,” said Hardy.
The one frustration that seemed to annoy locals was how the evacuation was executed. Officials told residents that they could leave their homes but were not allowed to come back until the evacuation was lifted as there was concerns about the integrity of the bridges.
“We got cows and in calving season you can’t just quit. They said we could come back and feed them in intervals but that doesn’t help if you have a cow calving in between intervals,” said Hardy. “You also don’t want to leave the cows in, and then if it did flood, you might have to open the gate. Other than that it was no big deal.”
Hardy concluded by saying that no matter what year it is, there is always a sense of concern in spring.
“You’re always worried but you don’t know how much water is going to come up,” said Hardy.
