Number of travellers at Alberta border crossing ‘unreal’: Coutts mayor

The mayor of a village in southern Alberta says the number of vehicles waiting at the Canada-United States border has been unreal.

Coutts Mayor Jim Willett says RVs began flooding the community’s streets on Friday to the point that both entrances to the village became blocked.

By the time the border opened at 10 p.m. Sunday evening, Willett says the line of vehicles waiting was more than six-kilometres long.

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Willett says community members have never seen anything like it.

He says vehicles have been slowly trickling across the border, but it’s still about a four-hour wait to get across to the U.S.

According to U.S. customs, there were 40-minute delays Monday morning with three lanes open to traffic.

The world’s longest undefended border was first shut down on Mar. 21, 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic tightened its grip.