Cleanup underway but Alberta town faces long road to recovery after recent rains

The floodwaters have receded but there is a long cleanup ahead, as the town of Tofield, Alta., located about an hour southeast of Edmonton, recovers from the stormy weather in late June that Mayor Adam Hall said dumped about 20 cm (8 inches) of rain on the area.

On Sunday, July 5, the town’s state of emergency was finally allowed to expire.

“The water that was south of the tracks has mostly receded around the businesses there. Pockets of water here and there, but for the most part that water is gone now,” said Hall.

“We’re just seeing movement of water mostly on the west end of town coming from the county. The creeks are full and they’re flowing, but they’re going where they’re supposed to be going which is good.”

Hall says the town has received a lot of help from CN, which supplied six industrial pumps to the town, as well as lots of support from surrounding communities.

While there is one walking trail that was badly damaged, Hall says the town’s infrastructure, including the sewer system, did “fine” during the storm.

“There are a few roads that needed to be fixed that head out to the lagoon that we have. Definitely out in the county, there’s some rural roads that need to be fixed, but here in town, it’s mostly just local businesses that are either cleaning up, local residents that are cleaning up,” Hall added.

One of those businesses is Tofield Packers which was completely surrounded by the floodwaters.

Jill Lungal, who owns the meat packing business, along with other family members spent three days piling sandbags around the perimeter of the building and trying to fend off the rising waters.

In the end they were successful — except for “a little water in the back.”

“We had sandbags all the way around our building. We had multiple sump-pumps, pumping water away from the building,” Lugal said.

“So we were kind of on a hamster wheel for a couple of days there trying just to keep it out of the building.

“We were just really battling to keep the water obviously out of the coolers, out of the drains, that kind of thing. That would have been a big deal for us. That would’ve caused us a lot of grief. I feel like we were very lucky.”

After health inspectors game the owners the go-ahead, Lungal said they were back in business within a few days.

So far, the only damage appears to be to the parking lot.

“The parking lot’s obviously a little rough and the asphalt — that kind of thing. That stuff’s not easy enough to fix, but it can be fixed. I’d rather that than the inside of the building.”

Lungal, like the mayor, says those in the community who were affected by floodwaters have a lot of people to thank.

“Friends, family, community members, customers that just showed up with either pumps or sandbags or just two hands and two feet, willing to do whatever and that definitely saved us,” Lungal said. “It’s a miracle our building is is OK.”

While the mayor expects it will take several months before everything is cleaned up and repaired, he says the city is already discussing what preventative measures — like installing culverts and other changes to infrastructure — can be made to prevent such flooding from happening again.

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.