Local States of Emergency Declared in Southern Alberta

Todayville

Published

7 years ago

5 minute read

The Blood Tribe, Cardston County and Municipal District of Pincher Creek have declared local states of emergency in response to southern Alberta wildfire conditions.

Current situation at 1:30 PM Sept. 12. Click for up-to-date information.

Current situation

Overnight the fire grew by 50 per cent to roughly 20,000 hectares. A mandatory evacuation was issued on Sept. 11 at 10:15 p.m. for a section of the Municipal District of Pincher Creek from South Highway 505 to Waterton Lakes National Park and Castle Mountain Resort. An estimated 150 residences have been affected. A reception centre has been set up at the Vertical Church at 1200 Ken Thornton Blvd. in Pincher Creek. Residents evacuating should go to the reception centre or call 403-904-8016 to register.
A mandatory evacuation was issued on Sept. 11 at 11:44 p.m. for the area of Cardston County between Waterton Lakes National Park and Hwy 800 from the U.S. border north to Twp Rd 40. More than 50 homes have been affected. Residents who are leaving and need accommodation should call 403-653-4977.
A mandatory evacuation was issued on Sept. 12 for areas of the Blood Tribe in Zone 1, including Fish Creek, St. Paul’s area extending north to Russell and Many Fingers residences. An evacuation advisory has been issued for Zone 3, including north of Russell and Many Fingers residences extending to Lavern and little Chicago area. An estimated 180 people have been affected. A reception centre has been set up in the Standoff multipurpose building, and residents are asked to register at the multipurpose building even if they do not intend to stay there.
Approximately 500 people are under a mandatory evacuation order from their homes in Waterton townsite, parts of Cardston Country, parts of the MD of Pincher Creek and parts of the Blood Reserve.
In the town of Waterton, roughly 60 structural firefighters from neighbouring municipalities, including the City of Calgary, are working to protect the structures within the perimeter of the town. Unfortunately structures outside the perimeter have been lost, including the Visitor Centre and several out buildings.
Crews are working hard to protect houses and other structures there and our latest information is that they have been successful.
Firefighters working within Waterton will be relieved today by a second team coming in and will continue their work with 17 fire trucks on site.
Within the park itself, there are roughly 135 firefighters, nine Alberta airtankers and 14 helicopters.
Alberta Forestry has an additional 125 firefighters and 23 helicopters on standby, waiting for direction from the incident command team.

Wildfire activity

The Kenow wildfire has spread outside Waterton Lakes National Park into Cardston County and the Municipal District of Pincher Creek.
High winds, high temperatures and low humidity are forecast for Tuesday, Sept. 12, and intense fire behaviour continues to be anticipated.

Waterton townsite

Structural protection units and resources are in place in the Waterton townsite and have worked through the night providing protection.
The Office of the Fire Commissioner is coordinating additional resources to be brought in today to replenish and supplement firefighting efforts from Coalhurst, Didsbury, Milk River, Olds, Ponoka and fire protection companies.

Park closures

Payne Lake Provincial Recreation Area, 25 km west of Cardston, has been closed (new).
A complete list of park closures is available at www.emergency.alberta.ca.

Travel

The following highways are closed to the public due to the current wildfire situation:
- Highway 5 east of Waterton Lakes National Park to west of Cardston
- Highway 6 north of Waterton Lakes National Park to Twin Butte
The following highways within Waterton Lakes National Park are closed to the public due to the current wildfire situation:
- Highway 5
- Highway 6
- Chief Mountain border crossing
The following highways are closed to the public, with the exception of permit holders, due to the current wildfire situation:
- Highway 532, west of Highway 22
- Highway 520, east of Highway 22 for approximately 12 km
- Highway 774, from Highway 507 to Castle Provincial Park
Check 511 Alberta for up-to-date travel information

Todayville

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

California’s soaring electricity rates strain consumers, impact climate goals

Crime / 2 hours ago

Former UK MP says ‘nothing was done’ with child trafficking information given to police, MI5

National / 5 hours ago

Chrystia Freeland’s WEF page deleted after she announces bid to replace Trudeau

Facebook / Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg on the Joe Rogan Experience

Published on January 10, 2025

Duane Rolheiser

Earlier this week Mark Zuckerberg rocked the world of information with the news that Facebook, Instagram, and his other Meta properties would no longer use third party fact checking groups to censor information. As the week wraps up, Zuckerberg sits down for an extended conversation with Joe Rogan. For anyone interested in the world of information, this is a must see / listen.

From the Joe Rogan Experience

Mark Zuckerberg is the chief executive of Meta Platforms Inc., the company behind Facebook, Instagram, Threads, WhatsApp, Meta Quest, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, Orion augmented reality glasses, and other digital platforms, devices, and services.

Daily Caller

‘Embarrassingly Wrong’: Corporate Media’s Talking Heads Confess Their Biggest Blunders Of 2024

Published on December 31, 2024

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Owen Klinsky

From MSNBC host Rachel Maddow to businessman and television personality Mark Cuban, a slew of media leaders divulged what they got wrong this past year in a Semafor article published Monday.

Media missteps included NBC News President Rebecca Blumenstein underestimating the impact of inflation on politics, Fox News anchor Dana Perino incorrectly predicting Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce would get engaged and CNBC financial journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin not putting “DOGE and the pairing of Elon [Musk] and Vivek [Ramaswamy]” on his 2024 Bingo card, according to the piece. Despite the variety of answers, one topic — Joe Biden’s lack of mental acuity — seemed to sit at the top of the list for many respondents.

“Like many others, I was completely, utterly, totally, embarrassingly wrong about [President Joe] Biden’s lack of mental competence,” progressive British-American broadcaster Mehdi Hasan told Semafor.

Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election in July following a disastrous June debate performance in which he appeared to lose his train of thought several times and stated he “beat Medicare.” Prior to the decision to exit the race, the White House made various efforts to mask the effects of his age, with the president wearing sneakers rather than dress shoes and taking shorter steps up Air Force One.

The White House actively denied claims Biden’s mental health was declining, with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre characterizing a video of the President wandering away from world leaders at the G7 Summit as a “cheap fake” and claiming it was orchestrated by Republicans. Much of the corporate media supported the White House’s effort, with panelists on MSNBC’s Morning Joe describing a June article from The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that detailed the president’s declining mental health as “outrageous,” and CNN’s Bakari Sellers suggesting in July, well after the debate, that there was no reason to believe Biden could not serve for another four years.

Other examples of the media downplaying concerns over Biden’s mental acuity include The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg rushing to the president’s defense after co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin said Biden could have a “senior moment” on stage prior to the debate and MSNBC analyst Mike Barnicle describing members of the Democratic Party as cruel in July for trying to oust the president from the 2024 race.

More recently, former CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza apologized in a YouTube video posted in December for waiting too long to investigate concerns that Biden’s mental acuity was deteriorating, admitting that as a journalist he should have “pushed harder earlier for more information about Joe Biden’s mental and physical well-being.”

American talk show host Brian Lehrer made a similar apology in his response to Semafor: “Many callers to my show said Joe Biden was in no shape to run for re-election. I mostly dismissed it as ageism. Then I watched the debate.”