Skip to content

County applies for provincial disaster relief

With locals gravel roads in such bad shape, Westlock County has applied for the province’s Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) in the hopes of getting some financial relief. Director of Infrastructure Al Scott told council Aug.
Westlock County has applied for the province’s Disaster Recovery Program (DRP), due to excessive precipitation levels that have accumulated since last fall. The data at
Westlock County has applied for the province’s Disaster Recovery Program (DRP), due to excessive precipitation levels that have accumulated since last fall. The data at right, taken from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, shows the precipitation level from July 9 to Aug. 7. The driest areas, shown in dark red, indicate 0 mm to 20 millimetres of precipitation. The wettest areas in purple received greater than 240 mm. Westlock County falls in the green zone, between 100 mm to 160 mm.

With locals gravel roads in such bad shape, Westlock County has applied for the province’s Disaster Recovery Program (DRP) in the hopes of getting some financial relief.

Director of Infrastructure Al Scott told council Aug. 8 that the amount and frequency of moisture since the fall of 2016 up to this summer has hampered road operations and forced grader operators to suspend work for days at a time.

“I’m sure you’re all aware that 2017 has been a challenging year for road maintenance, getting gravel on the roads,” Scott said. “Due to the amount of moisture on the roads, it’s not possible to grade the roads when it’s muddy and covered in water.”

Alberta Emergency Management Agency (AEMA)’s DRP provides financial assistance to municipalities for uninsurable loss caused by emergency disasters.

According to Alberta Municipal Affairs, 17 municipalities have applied to the DRP for excessive rainfall in 2016. One application was denied, one approved and the remaining are pending, including applications from the county and Town of Westlock. Thorhild County was one of eight municipalities that submitted an application for excessive rainfall in 2017.

“I think administration’s got a very good idea to apply for this disaster assistance,” reeve Don Savage commented. “I wish that there would be more counties and neighbours that are also applying because the county of Athabasca is just as bad as we are — so is Barrhead.”

Scott said the intention of the county’s application is to bring Public Works back to “functional capabilities” related to the road network.

He added that he had already spoken with an AEMA field officer about the application and guidelines.

“Through the conversation it became apparent that the application must be for a specific extraordinary event that has caused widespread damage to property,” Scott said.

“In the guidelines, in order to meet this definition for Westlock County’s situation, an event is considered extraordinary if there has been a one-in-50-year precipitation level received.”

However, he said the high moisture level in the area over the last year wouldn’t be considered a once-in-50-years scenario.

“Speaking with the field officer, that’s typically not an event,” he noted.

“An event has a start date and an end date, not an accumulation over time. The rain we received a few weeks ago, some parts of the county got four inches of rain, some parts got six inches. We might be able to use that.”

According to data from Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, between July 9 and Aug. 7, Westlock County and area received between 100-140 millimetres of precipitation.

To the north and in the Tawatinaw region, those areas received 140-160 mm.

The data comparing the precipitation level for that same timeframe to the long-term normal showed the northern half of the county ranked “high,” meaning those levels occurred once every six to 12 years.

The northeastern part of the county ranked “very high” with precipitation levels seen once every 12 to 25 years.

In the south, precipitation levels compared to previous years were “near normal” or “moderately high,” occurring once every three to six years.

Scott added that there is no guarantee Westlock County would be successful, and the process could be time consuming and result in delays from the time it is reported.

“However if we don’t apply, we’re guaranteed to not get anything,” he said.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks