It is a sign that things are slowly returning to normalcy in the central Okanagan as the clean-up job has officially started on numerous beaches as well as Okanagan Lake.
“Definitely the central Okanagan is in clean-up mode,” Ron Mattiussi with the Emergency Operations Centre said Thursday.
The clean-up involves the removal of debris from the foreshore including logs, barrels, and parts of broken docks. Heavy equipment is also being used to remove similar kinds of debris from the lake itself, a job that’s expected to take a long time to complete.
“This is the first shot at it, this is the stuff that is obvious, that’s floating. As the lake comes down, more and more will be revealed,” Mattiussi said. “This removal will have to be staged with the lake levels dropping.”
The clean-up also involves the removal of protective barriers such as sandbag walls and bladder dams from areas where it is safe to do so, just in time for the Canada Day long weekend.
“We are really at this point really trying to open up whatever we think is possible,” Mattiussi said. “We’re going to try and make the places as normal as we can under the circumstances.”
The water level in Okanagan Lake is still historically high. As of Thursday, it was still hovering more than half a metre above full pool.
This week, the provincial government released information about the number of docks that have been impacted by the unprecedented high water levels. It estimates up to 1,500 out of the 2,000 licensed docks need to be either replaced or repaired.