Two communities in the north Okanagan are having very different experiences with high water levels, with one finally feeling on top of flood preparation and the other watching water threaten homes and roadways.
The overflow from BX Creek in Vernon has intensified, turning one family’s back deck into dock and threatening a number of other properties.
BX Creek originally flooded last Friday. Ted Walker, who lives next to the creek, counts himself lucky that he didn’t take down his sandbags, because the water began to rise again last night.
Walker and his family have built a wall of sandbags and concrete protecting their home and driveway from the rushing water and stopping the creek from flowing down the road. Cyril Barkved lives downhill from the Walkers, and he fears the blockade won’t be enough.
It’s a different story in nearby Lumby, where the danger of flooding appears to have eased thanks to hard preparation work.
Water levels rose 80 to 100 millimeters overnight in the area’s waterways, and there is still significant snow pack yet to melt on the Aberdeen Plateau above Lumby.
Locals rushing to prepare in case of another flood surge have had help from all around the province, with crews in town from Vernon, Revelstoke and North Vancouver.
“I think that right now we’re quite stable, what they’ve done is give us almost up to a meter, meter and a half of leeway in some places,” Benson said.
Workers are also busy removing trees from creek banks.
“It’s preventative for in the future because these trees are just leaning, and this high water is making the root bases really unstable because it saturates the roots,” said Ashley Farr, who was removing trees today. “They just uproot, rip a big hole in the edge of the creek, creates the water to erode and then it just eats the bank away.”
With this amount of preparation, Lumby hopes to avoid a repeat of last week’s widespread flooding.
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