The Calgary Stampede grounds are immersed in water during heavy flooding in Calgary, Saturday, June 22, 2013.

Image Credit: CP/Jonathan Hayward

Update: 9:50am June 22, 2013

Alberta's municipal affairs minister says 27 communities are under a state of emergency as some areas begin to recover from flooding while others are still bracing for it.

But Doug Griffiths says no place has been hit harder than the town of High River south of Calgary.

He says it will be a while before residents there will be allowed back, and tensions and emotions are running high.

Griffiths says virtually every home in the town will need to be inspected before anyone can move back in.

Floodwaters have been receding in southwestern Alberta, including in Calgary, where residents in some neighbourhoods have been allowed to return.

But to the east, 10,000 people have been told to head for higher ground as the powerful South Saskatchewan River rises in Medicine Hat.

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Floodwaters were receding in southwestern Alberta on Sunday, allowing some residents into their houses to assess damage, but thousands farther east were under orders to leave their homes.

The powerful South Saskatchewan River was rising in Medicine Hat. It was not expected to crest until early Monday morning, but by Sunday morning it was lapping over its banks in low-lying areas and people were busy laying down thousands of sandbags.

A spokesman for the city said a local park and several senior's recreational centres had been cleared out in anticipation of flooding and parts of the city near the river had been closed. Police were patrolling those areas.

Thousands of people were being advised to head for higher ground.

Mayor Norm Boucher said most residents in the city of 10,000 people had obeyed the evacuation order, but a handful were refusing to leave their homes. He warned that officials could not guarantee their safety.

"We're going to go around again to make sure that they're out of there, because the water will be even higher than this and it may be very difficult to reach anybody,'' said Boucher.

Ron Robinson, the city's director of emergency measures, was asked if people could be forcibly removed from their homes.

Yes, he replied. "They can be fined, they can be jailed. We need to protect lives even if they don't want us to.''

Alberta's Premier urged the community to stay strong.

"This is going to be a very challenging time for Medicine Hat,'' Alison Redford said on a visit there Saturday evening.

"There's going to be a lot of uncertainty and people are going to be afraid. I want people to know we have the opportunity to get through this.''

The community of Drumheller -- famous for its dinosaur park -- had also declared a local state of emergency as the Red Deer River rose quickly.

To the west, in Calgary, vacated neighbourhoods along the swollen Bow and Elbow Rivers were showing signs of life again as displaced residents started to trickle home.

Some were returning to properties spared by the flooding, but many were facing extensive repairs to homes and businesses.

Nathan MacBey and his wife found muddy water had risen to about kitchen-counter level in their Calgary home. His basement was swamped and the main floor was covered in wet mud.

"We'd seen flooding and we could keep up to the flooding with our sumps, but this is unprecedented,'' said the father of two, his voice cracking with emotion.

"Not being able to give our kids a home, that's tough ... We can survive, it's just the instability for the kids.''

MacBey left his home early Friday morning after the power went out and water started flowing through the front door.

"It was surge of water. It wasn't lapping, it was a surge,'' he said as he surveyed the mess the floods had made of his living room.

"Material possessions can be replaced. It's the memories. We don't worry about replacing the desks and the chairs.''

Calgary's mayor, Naheed Nenshi, has warned that recovery will be a matter of "weeks and months'' and the damage price-tag will be "lots and lots.''

Calgary's mayor is proving to by the comic relief for the flooding in the city.

Image Credit: SOURCE/Twitter

And at a briefing Sunday morning, emergency measures chief Bruce Burrell warned that despite the improving situation in Calgary, the city was still in emergency mode.

"We made it to this point with no serious injuries,'' he added. "Let's keep it that way.''

The public got its first look inside the city's Saddledome on Saturday. The home of the NHL's Calgary Flames is flooded up to the eighth row of the lower bowl. Everything below -- seats, boards, dressing rooms, and player equipment -- is a total loss, says the team.

Elsewhere, there is erosion in the Inglewood area of the city and fears that a large chunk of the riverbank along the Bow will be washed away.

PEI's transport minister has called the city offering the expertise of its engineers to ensure that Calgary's bridges are safe.

The mountain town of Canmore was one of the first communities hit when the flooding began on Thursday. Residents have been allowed to return to 260 evacuated homes, but RCMP say 40 more are too damaged to allow people back.

John Marriott lost his backyard when a raging river roared right up to the foundation of his house.

"It's still a lot better than watching it flow away in the creek, which I thought it was going to be,'' said the wildlife photographer on Saturday afternoon. "I don't want to relocate but I guess you do what you have to do. It's just a house.''

The town of High River has been slowly draining, but large areas remained under water Sunday. The lockdown remained in effect and residents had been told it would be days before they were allowed to return.

At least three people have died as a result of the flooding in High River, while a fourth person remains missing.

About 350 members of the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry from Edmonton have been assisting local RCMP in reaching homes that still haven't been checked. Light Armoured Vehicles have been churning through submerged streets and Zodiac watercraft have been used to reach the hardest-hit areas.

"We have a number of engineers with some boats, some diving capabilities, but really it's a source of labour,'' said Lieut.-Col. Nick Grimshaw, the Commanding Officer, PPCLI 1st Battalion,.

"We're helping them get into areas that are inaccessible by normal means so we can use our assault boats to do that or our armoured vehicles to move through some of the tighter areas.''

Redford was also in High River Saturday and visited an evacuation centre in nearby Nanton.

''I met a little girl at an evacuation girl in Nanton ... named Sienna and she was about five-years-old, and I said to Sienna 'where do you live?' and she said 'I live in High River but I can't go home because my house is filled with water, but someday I'm going to go home,'" the premier recalled.

"I think that's what will stick with me.''

Update: 9:50 a.m. June 22, 2013

CALGARY - RCMP say as many as four people may have died in heavy flooding that has swept through much of southern Alberta.

Police say two men were seen floating lifeless in the Highwood River near the hard-hit community of High River on Thursday, but no bodies have been found.

They also say a woman who was swept away with her camper has not be located.

And it's not clear whether a man who was seen falling out of a canoe in the High River area was able to climb back in.

Mounties are reminding people to stay away from affected areas until they are part of emergency response efforts.

Update: 3:55 p.m. June 21, 2013

Rainfall warnings have ended in all parts of Alberta except the Kananaskis-Canmore region where another 5-10 millimetres could fall this evening.

The southern part of Banff National Park into the Kananaskis region still have many closed roads as flooding has washed out several highways in the area, including Hwy 1 between Canmore and Banff, though from Banff to Golden the highway is open to light traffic.

Streets around Calgary remain closed or are limited to single lane traffic after floodwaters began to take over parts of the city Thursday evening.

The province upgraded alerts to critical status in several areas around the noon hour today, including in Banff where the Bow River basin has received more than 250 mm of rain since Wednesday morning, leading to water flowing across roads around the town and causing localized flooding.

11:10 a.m. June 21, 2013

ALBERTA - More than 190 millimetres of rain has fallen over a three-day period in some Southern Alberta regions, damaging landmarks and forcing evacuations of thousands of people.

More than a dozen critical alerts have been issued by the province as dams overflow, overland and flash flooding invade communities and high water levels pose an immediate risk. Alerts are affecting the southern part of the province, from Lethbridge to Sundre and west through to the B.C. border. Highways have been shut down between Alberta and B.C. because of washouts and debris.

Mandatory evacuations of about 100,000 people in Calgary took the city by storm last night as flood waters invaded multiple communities, including downtown.

Northwest of Lethbridge a dam overflow at the Twin Valley reservoir has forced evacuations and in the Banff and Canmore areas creeks are overflowing, threatening the properties backing onto them and forcing even more evacuations.

In Turner Valley an evacuation order is in place as crews try to deal with a hydrogen sulphide gas leak caused by the flooding. Unconfirmed reports say the Calgary Saddledome is flooded and animals in the Calgary Zoo are being moved to high ground. Last night, the Royal Canadian Army was called in to help with it.

Over a 60 hour period Environment Canada has recorded 53.2 mm of rain at the Calgary Airport while Banff has seen 86 mm. In Bow Valley 190.7 mm (7.5 inches) of rain has fallen as of 10 a.m. today.

We are gathering some of the incredible images and video from social media sites.

To contact a reporter for this story, email jstahn@infotelnews.ca, call (250)819-3723 or tweet @JennStahn.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2013