Heavy rains lead to Alberta flood advisories

High streamflow advisories and flood watches have been issued in much of Alberta following several days of heavy rain.

Alberta Environment spokesperson Chris Bourdeau said most of the province north of Calgary is under some sort of advisory.

"Certainly with the large amounts of precipitation we're seeing in central and northern Alberta, we've issued a variety of different high streamflow advisories and a couple of flood watches for some of the streams and rivers in central and northern Alberta."

High streamflow advisories have been issued for:

• Red Deer River and its tributaries.
• Medicine River.
• North Saskatchewan River and its streams and tributaries.
• Clearwater River
• Athabasca River Basin.
• Peace River Basin.

"What a high streamflow advisory is, is basically stream levels and river levels are rising or expected to rise rapidly but we do not expect any major flooding," Bourdeau said.

"There may be some minor flooding in low-lying areas, and certainly we advise anyone who is close to the stream to be aware, to be cautious around the rising water levels."

A flood watch has been issued for the Little Red Deer River, which officials said was peaking Saturday afternoon.

Bourdeau said flood watches mean stream levels are rising andstreams may exceed their banks and flooding in adjacent areas may occur.

Firefighters in Edmonton warned people to stay away from the North Saskatchewan River Saturday as water levels continued to rise.

"The river is actually very dangerous right now," said fire Capt. Randy Shakura.

"I would estimate it is flowing three times faster than it usually does. It's moving at a good clip. There's a lot of debris on the water right now."

Edmonton firefighters spent much of the morning chasing down six dragon boats after a section of dock broke away from the bank.