Peachland bladder dam demolished by wind-whipped waves

On Thursday morning, crews started building a 1.7 kilometre bladder dam along the lakefront in downtown Peachland.

“The idea with this is to stop wave action from coming over the walkway and down along the road,” said District of Peachland spokesperson Joe Mitchell. “It erodes the road and the storm system will be overwhelmed if we get too much water on the road.”

The building of the bladder dam is expected to take about four days. They were hoping to get it completed before any storm surges occurred. No such luck.

The strong winds struck Thursday afternoon, whipping up the waves, overwhelming large sections of the dam.

“I was a little surprised it pulled the water bladder into the lake about 10 minutes ago,” said Peachland resident Lyle Archambault as he surveyed the scene. “The waves are so big it just yanked it off the sidewalk into the water.”

It’s likely the reconstruction of the demolished dam will start Friday, waves permitting.