A flood alert was issued for Mountain View County, Red Deer County and Parts of Southern Alberta.The province issued the emergency alert at 2:59 p.m. Thursday.  
  The province also provided an update Thursday afternoon on flooding and flood watches and warnings in Southern Alberta.
  As of 2 p.m. Thursday, Evan Friesenhan of Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development said there is only one  flood watch for the Red Deer River basin,the Little Red Deer River, adding the river's water level is currently falling.
  Steven Carr, director of central operations, Alberta Emergency Management Agency, said their chief concern at this point is the Blood Reserve and the Town of Claresholm.
  Carr said about 130 homes on the Blood Tribe have been affected by flooding.
  Across the province 500 homes have been affected, including homes on the Blood Tribe and in Lethbridge.
  Most of that is due to overland flooding and sewer back up, he said, because of the amount of rainfall, rather than from river flow.
  Friesenhan said current predictions have the Oldman River, which is still rising, peaking at 2100 cubic metres per second in Lethbridge Friday morning, and the South Sasketchewan rising another 2.4 metres to peak in Medicine Hat at an estimated 2700 cubic metres per second Saturday mid-days
  A flood watch has been issued for Mosquito Creek in the Oldman River basin. A high Streamflow advisory has been issued for Little Bow River in the Oldman River basin. The flood warning remains in effect for the South Saskatchewan, Waterton (including Waterton Lake), Belly Rivers and Willow Creek.
  The flood watch and high stream flow advisories are still in effect for streams in the Bow, Oldman, Milk and Red Deer River basins. The high streamflow advisory for the rivers and streams flowing out of the Cypress Hills has ended.
  Rivers and streams out of the Crowsnest River have been downgraded to a flood watch.
 The Municipal District of Taber and the town of Magrath declared local states of emergency Thursday about 10:45 a.m., bringing the total number of  Alberta communities under a local state of emergency to twelve as of 2 p.m., June 19.

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    A group of downtown merchants sought Drumheller Town  Council’s approval in principle for a proposal to close off Centre Street to vehicles between Third Avenue and Railway Avenue during the period of July 15 to August 31.
    Council did not make a motion on the pedestrian mall concept unveiled at their regular meeting Monday, June 16.
    Travel Drumheller’s Chris Curtis made the presentation on behalf of the merchants group.
    The merchant’s group envisions a Centre Street pedestrian mall where existing businesses would use the street, which would contain a staffed guest kiosk at both the Third Avenue and Railway Avenue entrances, entertainers performing daily, and produce sold by local farmers.
    Mayor Terry Yemen told Curtis the door on the idea isn’t closed, the idea may just need reworked.
    “It was suggested the group revisit, maybe take baby steps, and try it on weekends,” said the Mayor.
    “I see value in it, and we do bring a lot of tourists here, and we do get a lot of tourists at Splash Park,” he said, adding “If we could get a third of them there (downtown), that would be incredible.”
“    It’s not what we wanted, but it’s not a setback,” said Curtis.
He said the idea of the pedestrian mall came about when a small group of downtown merchants got together and started talking about ways to make Drumheller’s downtown busier and more vibrant.
    “I’m really the facilitator for the group, but I do think a vibrant downtown is good for tourism, as well as business.”
    Curtis said the next step is to do up a survey with a concrete plan to present to downtown merchants, but notes time may not be on their side.
    “We’ll go out and talk to merchants, figure out what they want, and bring it back (to Council). My fear is by the time everything gets approved, it would be August 15.
    Council supported the idea of improvements downtown, but expressed concerns about the plan as it was presented.
    Counting among those concerns were impacts to businesses, especially those on Centre Street, and a lack of details in the plan, such as who would be paying for the project’s costs, including providing new signs on the pedestrian mall and to direct traffic to public parking, and providing shaded areas for patrons.
    Curtis said there was added value to the process.
“The best part of the whole thing - twenty downtown merchants in a meeting sitting down to talk.”