Fire ban issued in RM of Meadow Lake as flooding causes road closures

The prohibition does not apply to CSA- or ULC-rated cooking stoves using gas, propane or briquettes, or to portable campfire apparatus using approved fuels, provided the flame height remains below 15 centimetres.

The RM also reported road closures due to rising water levels.

Township Road 610 between Highway 4 and Meadow River Road is closed, along with a short section of Township Road 590 between two points on Range Road 3173. Range Road 3173 remains open.

The notice warns conditions can change quickly, and water-covered roads may be deeper than they appear. Drivers are advised to use alternate routes and avoid travelling through flooded areas.

This situation comes as the Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) and the Water Security Agency (WSA) described the situation the Meadow Lake region is experiencing as a “100-year flood.”

Despite the name, it doesn’t mean the event happens just once every century, only that the likelihood of a flood of that magnitude (1 per cent in this case) remains the same each year.

Leah Clark, executive director of irrigation and economic development for the WSA, explained that Saskatchewan has seen higher-than-average snowpack this year, but Meadow Lake is experiencing the “most extreme” conditions.

“Around that Meadow Lake area, it was a one-in-100-year event that they saw for runoff. In other areas, one-in-25 was really common,” she said, adding that west-central Saskatchewan near the Alberta boundary and the east-central regions are most prone to flooding this year.

Crews are monitoring conditions and updates will be posted on Voyent Alert.

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cjnbnews@pattisonmedia.com

by meadowlakeNOW staff

Fire ban issued in RM of Meadow Lake as flooding causes road closures

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