Overland flooding causes problems for residents of Carseland and Wheatland County

Flooding from melting snow Overland flooding is affecting residents in Wheatland County. Kevin Fleming has more.

Many people living in rural Southern Alberta are seeing some overland flooding.

Melting snow in farmers’ fields is creating ponds and small, fast flowing rivers which can mean trouble for people living downstream.

The province issued a high level water alert for Wheatland County on Monday.

Todd Moench has lived in Carseland for 35 years and Sunday night his property turned into a lake as water surrounded all the buildings and filled the basement of his homes.

“I knew it was coming. I was just staying here waiting for it, just a matter of when. I drove around and I could see it coming,” says Moench.

His pump is still clearing the basement.

Lorne Jones lives just west of Carseland and was checking out a corner of his property the typically floods in spring.

“I suppose until all this stuff to the north melts it's going to be a couple more days of it, but it's not as bad as it was,” says Jones. “We went out to drive south over by the dump yesterday (Sunday) and just about every road is running over.”

People in town saw flooding Saturday and Sunday evenings when the warm temperatures melted so much snow the culverts couldn’t keep up.

Most of the water will eventually make its way south to the Bow River but residents of Carseland and Wheatland County say they expect more overland flooding as long as there’s still snow to melt.

There are other problem areas.

Red Deer County issued a voluntary evacuation notice for residents in the Silver Lagoon area off Range Road 25 which affects at least 15 to 20 homes.

A peace officer is in the area notifying residents going into the area that a voluntary evacuation notice is in place.

Highway 587, west of Bowden is closed at Range Road 23 to range Road 25 because of an ice jam in the river which has water pooling over the road but this stretch of road is expected to open Tuesday.

An evacuation centre has been set up at the Cottonwood Gordon Community Hall but as of 7:45 p.m. Monday night no one had registered.

(With files from Kevin Fleming)