Sonja Puzic, CTVNews.ca Staff Published Monday, June 24, 2013 8:27AM EDT Last Updated Monday, June 24, 2013 2:42PM EDT

The Alberta government has announced it will provide $1 billion in funding to kickstart the first phase of flood recovery in the province.

Premier Alison Redford made the announcement Monday afternoon.

Earlier Monday, residents of Medicine Hat, Alta. were relieved to learn that the South Saskatchewan River had crested overnight and water levels were slowly receding.

But damage was severe in many other southern Alberta communities, after historic floods washed out roads, destroyed homes and displaced tens of thousands of residents.

The town of High River, about 37 kilometres south of Calgary, is almost entirely flooded and 80 per cent of the community has no power or basic services, the Alberta Emergency Management Agency said Monday.

At least three people have died and a fourth person is missing.

Officials say they are worried that some of High Rivers 13,000 residents are still inside their homes, despite the evacuation orders. Members of Canadian Forces are on the ground, assisting local authorities.

Soldiers are also helping out in Medicine Hat, where some flooding occurred along the South Saskatchewan River. But an anticipated disaster appears to have been avoided.

The city was expecting the water flow in the river to reach 6,000 cubic metres per second, but it peaked at about 5,300 cubic metres.

Read more here:

Medicine Hat in 'good shape' as river swells: mayor