Steady as she goes for flood preparations in the Central Okanagan.
The Emergency Operations Centre for the Regional District says the spike in heat last week did result in a corresponding rise in the amount of water flowing through local creeks, but that has since died down with cooler temperatures having less of an impact on the snowpack.
The Chief Operating Officer for the Centre, Alan Newcombe says preparations are still being taken at historically flood-prone areas but nothing is imminent, “We have been doing a lot of proactive measures, where we have critical public infrastructure at some risk. We have been implementing sandbags and tiger dams around various locations, and doing other works like that, to limit and prevent the amount of flooding.”
Newcombe has good news for people who live at the shore of Okanagan Lake, “If a person lives along the lake, there’s no reason to panic at this point of time. We’re at least a metre away from full pool in the lake. We’ll probably get there later, maybe July, something like that. We’re not expecting lake flooding this year.”
“The real risk, at the moment anyway, is along the creeks,” according to Newcombe. Anyone living near creeks that have a tendency to flood can find sandbags in various locations around the Okanagan.
Check here to locate them, or to see the latest on emergency operations in the region.