While there are still flood concerns across the province due to the spring runoff, things have stabilized considerably in the Northwest region.
On Saturday the emergency declaration in Maidstone timed out after seven days, and on Monday it was also lifted in the town of Radisson. The RM of Elfros had also seen its emergency declaration expire.
That is the word from government officials who took part in the daily briefing Tuesday of reporters on the flood situation across the province.
As well, almost all of the 73 people who had been evacuated from Poundmaker First Nation had been allowed to return home, and the flood situation seemed to be stabilized at Onion Lake First Nation for now.
The latest risk on Onion Lake was due to grassfires, with Social Services reporting that 13 people were evacuated from Onion Lake due to the fire situation as of Monday.
Both First Nations remained under an emergency declaration on Tuesday, as was the village of Borden and town of Rosthern. In addition, four other First Nations and a total of five rural municipalities were still under emergency declarations for a total of 13 as of Tuesday.
The latest to declare an emergency was the RM of Humboldt Monday.
The Radisson area was said to have stabilized considerably, and Borden was stable as well.
The main concern had shifted away from the rivers and tributaries to the lakes, according to officials.
One risk identified was at Murray Lake north of the Battlefords. Patrick Boyle of the Water Security Agency told reporters Tuesday that flows from Crystal Creek were very high and the inflows were coming into Murray Lake, which also flows into Jackfish Lake.
The first concern there was flooding due to the high flows, said Boyle, and the second was ice moving through the lake that could "cause damage to lakefront properties," he said.
Staff are in the area watching that situation, Boyle said.
Boyle also noted there was localized flooding in the Blaine Lake area due to the rapid melt and flows from a nearby creek. Staff continue to keep up a presence there, according to officials.
In general, the flooding situation is not as dire as what was seen in 2011, at least so far. Government officials had noted this week that heavy rain in 2011 was the difference that contributed to heavy flooding that year.
"The long melting period has helped us out a lot this year," said Boyle Tuesday. Most of the snow cover was gone in the province, he said.
Still, officials caution the situation in 2013 is not over yet.
