FORT MCMURRAY — More residents of Fort McMurray have been ordered out of their homes as spring ice break-up causes flooding on the Athabasca and Clearwater rivers in and around the northern Alberta city.
The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo issued evacuation orders for a number of streets in the city’s Lower Townsite neighbourhood.
It has also closed access to the entire area, including MacDonald Island, until further notice.
The areas in Fort McMurray being impacted by flooding continues to grow. #yeg #yyc #ymm https://t.co/TMnJ7s4c0F pic.twitter.com/YNW21n8pWJ
— Courtney Theriault (@cspotweet) April 27, 2020
The evacuations include streets bordering the provincial court building and extend south to Platinum Hotels, which has been ordered cleared.
The municipality has issued a mandatory evacuation for the much of the lower townsite including:
Alberta Drive
Biggs Avenue
Saunderson Avenue
Nixon Street
Crescent Heights
Demers Drive
Demers Drive
Armit Crescent
Fitzsimmons Avenue
Father Mercredi Street
The Platinum Hotel at 8530 Franklin Avenue.
Riedel Street to Marshall Street along Manning Avenue
Pond Crescent
Poplar Crescent
Southern portion of Alberta Drive closest to Hospital Street
Taiga Nova industrial Park
Draper
Waterways, including the Ptarmigan Trailer Park
Longboat Landing, including all of Fontaine Crescent
A voluntary evacuation notice has been issued from Fraser Avenue to Clearwater Drive including:
Hill Drive
Wagner Street
MacIver Street
McLeod Street
Evacuees have been asked to report to a registration centre at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre, which is about seven kilometres to the south.
On the advice of Alberta Health Services, the regional government has also issued a boil water advisory this morning for all areas of Fort McMurray north of Athabasca River bridges.
The advisory, which remains in effect until further notice, was issued because of discoloured tap water and covers seven neighbourhoods and the Taiga Nova Eco-Industrial park.
The municipality declared a state of local emergency and issued several evacuation orders Sunday after an ice jam collapsed about 10 kilometres up the Athabasca River.
-with files from MyMcMurray
