'Crazy' storm leaves High Level main street knee deep in water

A torrential downpour in High Level Wednesday caused damage to the town officeand floodeda number of basements.

At one point,the town's main street looked more like a river,knee deep in water witha number of stranded vehicles.

Mayor Crystal McAteer said there was also hail. She's never seen anything like it during her 38 years in the town, located about 740 kmnorthwest of Edmonton.

"It was almost like a hurricane, trees were bent over and it was hailing and raining," said McAteer, who described the storm as "crazy."

The local fire department helped movepeople from their vehicles to safety. Police were on the scene blocking the main street.

"It kind of caught us off guard because we've never had a phenomenon like this before," McAteer explained.

Environment Canada recorded 28.7 mmof rain at its monitoring siteat the High Level Airport Wednesday, explaining that amountin a short period of time isconsiderable.

A restoration company washelping mop up water in the town office Thursday.The deluge led to water seepingintowashrooms and flooded the nearbylibrary, although it appears none of the books got wet.

Damage isbeing assessed throughout the community.

McAteer said a number of sewer backups werereported, although it's not clearhow many homes are affected. Many residentsare pumping water out of flooded basements and ripping out damaged carpets.

McAteer said while more rain is in the forecast, it looks like the worst is behind the community. She saidflooding is muchworse at the nearby Dene Tha' First Nation, about 115 kmnorthwest of High Level.

Dene Tha'Chief Joe Pastion said a local state of emergency remains in effect at the First Nation community,where about13 homes remain under threat from rising water levels after several days of heavy rain.

Water still seems to be rising a bit in the local rivers and that is pushing water back into Sousa Creek,said Pastion.

Band members are helping people who live in the threatenedhomes to put sandbags around them to try to protect them.

In total,Pastion said 144 people havebeen forced to leave their homesbecause of the flooding. About120 of themare staying in a reception centre that has been set up at alocal school.

Standing water remains an issue in the community, renderingsome areasinaccessible.

"The roads are washed out so there's not a lot of access," said Pastion.

Pastion said damage is still being evaluated throughout hiscommunity. But he willlikely be requestingprovincial and federal governmenthelp with somerebuilding costs.