With less than two weeks to go before the annual Calgary Stampede is set to begin, the city is under a state of emergency due to massive flooding. But Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the world-famous 10-day rodeo will not be cancelled.

"We’re Calgarians. We’re going to make it work," Nenshi told reporters on Saturday. "The show will go on."

He did not say if the rodeo will be scaled-back, commenting only that this year's event "may not look the same as last year."

Earlier, the director of the Calgary Emergency Management Agency Bruce Burrell said the city is supportive of the event going ahead as planned, if at all possible.

"We certainly realize we’re nine days away from one of the largest celebrations on earth," Burrell told reporters at news conference on Saturday. "Certainly I’m planning on being in the parade…we’re going to do everything we can to restore the city."

On Friday – the day after an estimated 75,000 Calgarians were ordered out of their homes due to flooding-- city officials issued an evacuation order for Calgary’s entire downtown core.

That evacuation zone was expanded slightly on Saturday due to "traffic flow" problems, according to Burrell. He said signal lights were out in the area and that the city has decided not to tie up police resources to direct the flow of traffic.

Nenshi said the downtown core was flooded with a "considerable" amount of water. “We anticipate we will not restore access to downtown until the earliest middle of this week,” he said.

Nenshi added that the city may grant special access to certain buildings in the downtown core, however he did not mention the Saddledome, a major event site during the Stampede.

Last week, water levels had reached the 10th row of seats in the indoor arena. Pictures of the 19,000-seat arena showed its infield inundated by muddy water from the overflowing Elbow River.

Despite the flood-swamped venue, organizers have also been quick to reassure Stampede-goers the show will go on.

"Our volunteer and employee teams will be working hard to create and deliver the Calgary Stampede on July 5-14 as scheduled," Stampede officials tweeted on Friday.

According to a statement on the Calgary Stampede website, there will be no park access for the next few days, and seasonal employee orientations for the annual rodeo event are being rescheduled.

"When you return to work we will all pitch in to help in all ways possible. You will be part of a big team effort to deliver Stampede 2013," reads a message to employees posted on the website.

Twenty-five communities in the southern part of Alberta are under evacuation orders, displacing tens of thousands of residents.