Alberta Premier Alison Redford took a tour of High River on Wednesday and says this disaster changed many lives but also brought out the best in people.

“People far and wide rose to the challenge in helping their fellow Albertans,” said Redford. “It’s truly been inspiring to see thousands of volunteers from across Alberta and Canada and North America.”

The premier said that 30,000 volunteers poured into High River alone to help with recovery efforts and there is still a need for more assistance.

“The work isn’t done. There’s still a critical need for volunteers and I want to reiterate that. So if you can come please do,” said the premier.

Redford says they have issued 36,000 debit cards so far to southern Albertans who were affected by flooding.

They also moved $50 M into the Town of High River’s operating fund to keep it going and Redford says her government is committed to recovery and rebuilding in those communities that were affected.

“As a government we’ve stood side-by-side with Albertans with communities right across southern Alberta and in Fort McMurray to respond to these flooding disasters. We moved quickly to get money into the hands of Albertans where it was needed the most,” said Redford.

Over 20,000 tons of debris has been hauled away from High River so far which is equivalent to the volume of garbage removed from the community over the past ten years.

In High River, 90 percent of residents have now returned to their homes.

The provincial State of Emergency expires in High River on Friday but the premier says they will continue to work with the community.

“But as that State of Emergency ends, I want to make sure that I leave everyone on High River with a very clear message, we are not going anywhere.  Every one of the people who is in this emergency operations centre today, will be at work tomorrow morning, and they will be at work on the weekend and they will be at work on Monday because this is only another stage in what comes next for rebuilding High River,” said Redford.

“This support is not stopping, just because we are changing over from a provincial State of Emergency tomorrow to a local State of Emergency, that support from the province is still there. Those people aren’t going anywhere. “said High River Mayor Emile Blokland.

At the height of the flooding, 28 local states of emergency were in place. That number is now down to six.

The premier says the province is formulating a plan for rebuilding and she expects more information will be released in the coming days.

“There’s a whole suite of recommendations that we will put in place. Some of them are from experiences in Alberta, some of them are from experiences in other jurisdictions, and that will all be sorted out in the next couple of days,” said Redford.

She says that they will have to consider all of the scenarios before they enact a final policy for rebuilding.

The province committed an intitial $1 billion to recovery efforts and has established a task force to facilitate rebuilding.