WINNIPEG, Manitoba, April 13 (UPI) -- Spring flooding has put southern communities in Canada's three prairie provinces under states of emergency, officials said Wednesday.
City in Medicine Hat, Alberta, requested voluntary evacuations Tuesday night amid fears a dam on the Seven Person Creek would burst, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. As many as 500 homes would be affected, city officials warned.
In Saskatchewan, the mayor of the town of Radville declared an emergency when waters in Long Creek that had been swelling since the weekend threatened several homes Tuesday.
The mayor of the southwestern Manitoba city of Brandon also declared a state of emergency as 700 homes could be flooded if a rising retention pond breaches it banks, the newspaper said.
Large ice floes on the Souris River helped water build near the town of Souris, west of Winnipeg, and 75 volunteers were building sandbag berms around low-lying property, town officials said.
So far, two deaths have been attributed to the flooding in Manitoba, the Winnipeg Sun said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a 35-year-old man died Sunday after his car rolled over in a flooded ditch. The body of a 61-year-old man who likely drowned in his vehicle last Wednesday was recovered Saturday, the RCMP said.
