CTVNews.ca Staff Published Saturday, June 22, 2013 6:30AM EDT Last Updated Saturday, June 22, 2013 11:58PM EDT

The city of Medicine Hat is under a state of emergency as it braces for rising waters and heavy flooding over the coming days, expecting water levels similar to those that hit low-lying areas of Calgary in recent days.

Medicine Hat, approximately 300 kilometres southeast of Calgary, issued a mandatory evacuation in the low-lying areas of the city. The South Saskatchewan River, which winds through the city, is expected to rise Sunday and crest Monday.

According to the citys website the river is expected to peak early Monday morning with a flow rate between 5,100 to 6,000 cubic metres per second.

Nearly 10,000 residents were scheduled to be relocated Saturday morning, and the gas was shut off in the evacuated area as of 2 p.m. local time. The citys transit is moving people to the Evacuation Centre at the Medicine Hat College.

Electricity is also expected to be cut off. Several roads, including the entire Highway 41 Industrial Ave. corridor, have been closed.

Inmates at the Medicine Hat Remand Centre were being transferred to Lethbridge and Calgary, the Alberta Solicitor General announced in a tweet.

Residents of Medicine Hat are bracing for the worst.

You can hear the river threatening, one woman told CTV News. It looks very placid but its not, and stuff is starting to come.

Earlier reports indicated that as much as 70 per cent of the 10,000 residents were ignoring the order to leave their houses.

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Medicine Hat under evacuation orders for rising waters, 10,000 asked to leave