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Cypress County has declared a state of emergency.
Medicine Hat News
Counties in southeastern Alberta, along with five irrigation districts in the area, will share in disaster relief funds from the province after wildfires last fall or flooding this spring.
Cypress County and the Municipal District of Acadia are listed as those receiving funds in a press release from the Alberta Ministry of Municipal Affairs, which states 33 communities will share in the $39-million total.
No breakdown was provided, but local jurisdictions will will share in an extraordinary wildfire fund for counties located outside forest management areas that incurred more than $25 per capita costs on wildfire emergencies.
Fires swept across southern Alberta last October when winds pushed prairie fires east across swaths of northern Cypress County, Acadia Valley, Wheatland County and Cardston County.
Those rural jurisdictions will share $1.7 million from the Municipal Wildfire Assistance Program.
The standard Alberta Disaster Recovery Program will see a total of $29.1 million shared by four northern Alberta communities, 19 jurisdictions south of the Red Deer River and five irrigation districts.
Those are the St. Mary River, Bow River, Taber, Eastern and Western irrigation districts.
Another $7.9 million is allocated to cover uninsurable flood damage resulting from ice jams in MacKenzie County, in the province’s northwest corner, and Woodlands County, surrounding Whitecourt.
