By Sarah Stone

‘Emergency situation’ at Little Red River Park due to flooding

Jun 20, 2013 | 11:58 AM

The City of Prince Albert is immediately shutting down Little Red River Park for the safety of the public.

At an emergency conference Thursday morning, Mayor Greg Dionne said water rushing down from Anglin Lake has flooded areas of the park, impacting bridges and pathways.

“It is unsafe; we’re having areas washout underneath the grounds, so it may look like the ground is secure, but it is not. So we are sealing the gates, we’re posting signs warning people to get out and anyone we catch within the park will be dealt with swiftly,” said Dionne.

“It’s become a very dangerous situation.”

Employees at the Park have been removed and Dionne said they last thing they need to worry about is onlookers.

Raiders win 5-3

Defensive scoring leads Raiders over Wheat Kings

2h ago

GST Holiday

Federal government's two-month GST holiday begins

17h ago

Imminent need

Council set to discuss possible location for homeless shelter on 15th Street

23h ago

“We are in an emergency situation at Little Red River Park,” he said, going on to ask the public to avoid cluttering up the highway.

“If that swift water grabs you, you’re going be in the Saskatchewan River and I don’t know how quick we can grab you.”

City manager Robert Cotterill was also at the emergency conference explaining the current situation and plan.

“The tough part is water is probably one of the most difficult natural substances. You can’t control it when it wants to move. We have to wait until the river levels subside, examine the damage [and] determine a course of action. It’s conceivable our park could be closed for quite some time,” Cotterill said.

Because the banks of the river are natural clay with no rock coverage, any high water will destroy break away edges and change the stability of the surrounding land.

“I instructed our staff to take all precautions to close Little Red [River] Park due to dangerous conditions that are being caused by high water levels and basically taking out roadways, pathways and bridges.”

The Water Security Agency opened the dam located on the west side of Anglin Lake on Saturday to reduce the impacts of the recent heavy rain. This was meant to protect the dam itself.

At this point the last the city heard, the water at Anglin Lake is still rising and they expect high water levels at Little Red River Park to last anywhere from eight to 10 days.

But Dionne isn’t disappointed about the WSA’s decision to open the dam.

“At the end of the day, if you had a choice, do you want to lose a bridge or do you want to lose the dam, so they have to do what they have to do. At the end of the day I’m not upset with what they’ve done, strictly because if that dam wants to go because of the pressure of the high water we wouldn’t have any bridges—we wouldn’t have a Little Red,” Dionne said.

Once water slows down they’ll be communicating with the province and water authority on how they are going to do the repairs.

Again, the public is told to avoid the park for their own safety.

sstone@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84