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RMWB working to repair damages of flood

LISTEN: The latest city update.

[audio:http://pmd.country933.com/audio/ferne-news/june14thupdate.mp3]

Mayor Melissa Blake in media scrum after update.

[audio:http://pmd.country933.com/audio/ferne-news/mediascrummelissablake.mp3]

The municpality is working to remedy the flood situation – to ensure people AND emergency crews stay safe.

The city has, reinforced the Tolen Drive retaining wall, finished a berm at Heritage Park, and is currently installing boulders at Grayling Terrace and Ptarmingan trailer Park to stop soil erosion.

Mayor Melissa Blake says were not out of the woods yet, but its being monitored closely.

“So at this point those weather forecasts are a bit troubling, we are not prepared today to remove the mandatory evacuations,” she adds, “we will keep that watchful eye and will be as expediate as we can be in remedying the situation for people who are displaced.”

Fire Chief Darby Allen says he’s concerned about the erosion that continues to happen around the Draper Bridge.

“Our challenge there is if we lose that road then we lose contact with those people down there,” he stresses, “we just cant be in a situation were those people don’t have access to emergency services or care.”

RCMP Superintendent Bob Couture says during rush hourĀ  RCMP will be directing traffic on Hospital Street.

“[This] is to ensure we have some kind of free flowing traffic, because of the road closures.”

He notes it was extremely backed up yesterday when Grayling Terrace was notified of a mandatory evacuation, and police worked hard to direct the flow.

“However, no matter how many police officers we have down there directing traffic, we are still going to have traffic concerns in our city, and we ask everyone to be patient.”

Blake addressed the fact that she saw on twitter that people couldn’t get sand.

“It turns out that we actually had run out of it. So we’re working to source more and we were able to accommodate that last night in the later hours.”

Environment Canada has lowered its rain forecast for tonight to 20 millimetres and lifted the rainfall warning.

Prairie Loop Boulevard is now open and so is the King Street roundabout.

Next city update is tomorrow at 1:30