Western Canada Hit By Devastating Flooding

Flooding in western Canada has seen 100,000 people evacuated from their homes and washed out roads and bridges.

Thousands of residents were urged to leave Calgary and nearby towns in the heart of the country's oil patch as the mayor warned the worst of the flooding is yet to come.

The military sent in two helicopters and hundreds of troops to help clear as many as 24 neighbourhoods as heavy rains caused the Bow and Elbow Rivers to overflow their banks.

Mudslides forced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway, isolating the mountain resort towns of Banff and Canmore.

Torrential rains and widespread flooding throughout southern Alberta have left at least one person missing.

A woman who had been stranded on top of a trailer was missing after it was swept away, STARS air ambulance spokesman Cam Heke said.

Officials said further evacuations would take place in stages as the waters peak. The province of Alberta reported that 12 communities were under states of emergency.

Province premier Alison Redford cut short a visit to New York to visit the flood-hit areas and supervise the emergency response.

Communities such as High River, south of Calgary, were hit hard, with many neighbourhoods ordered to evacuate.

Water levels were expected to reach their maximum around noon local time on Friday.

Motorists who were trapped overnight on Wednesday by water spilling over Canada's main western highway had to be rescued by helicopter, Town of Canmore spokeswoman Sally Caudill said.

"I woke up at about three o'clock in morning to the sound of this kind of rumbling, and it was the creek," said Wade Graham, a resident of Canmore.

"At first it was just intense, pretty powerful, amazing thing to watch. As daylight came, it just got bigger and bigger and wider and wider, and it's still getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider."

He added, "I watched a refrigerator go by, I watched a shed go by, I watched couches go by. It's insane."

Bruce Burrell, director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency, said water levels on the Bow River are not expected to subside until Saturday afternoon.

The Bow River Basin already seen up to 10cm (3.9ins) of rain.

"Depending on the extent of flooding we experience ... there may be areas of the city where people are not going to be able to get into until the weekend," he told a news conference.

In High River, Mounties asked people with motorboats to help rescue at least a dozen stranded homeowners.

"We have people on their rooftops who were unable to evacuate fast enough," said Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Sargeant Patricia Neely.

Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning for the affected areas, estimating as much as 10cm more rain could fall in the next two days.

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