UPDATE 10 P.M. MONDAY – The owner of the Pringle or Kearns Creek dam near Willowbrook has been ordered by the B.C. Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations to pump water out of the dammed area to prevent further spillover, according to the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen (RDOS).
RDOS Emergency Management Program Coordinator Paul Edmonds said the dam reached capacity late Sunday and spilled, flooding properties below.
“It is forecast that the creek may rise up to 6″ as it flows through Willowbrook, while the operation is taking place,” Edmonds said in a press release Monday evening.
Kearns Creek is expected to rise overnight into Tuesday and over the next few days.
Residents have been advised to add two more layers of sandbags to help prevent flooding on their property.
Sand and sandbags can be acquired at the north intersection of Johnson and Carr Crescents and at the Willowbrook Fire Hall.
Residents can call the RDOS Emergency Centre at 250-490-4225 for more information.
Willowbrook lies west of Vaseux Lake in the south Okanagan.
ORIGINAL STORY:
The community of Willowbrook, B.C., is rallying to help neighbours frustrated with flooding.
Residents have been sandbagging properties in low-lying areas. At least 18 creekside properties are threatened.
“It’s a tremendous amount of water. It breached the road, it breached the ditch, and the water just overflowed, flooded my entire property right from the beginning of it, right to the end of it, which ultimately affects my neighbours,” Willowbrook resident Dennis Popik said.
“We’ve been dealing with this now for two days.”
Popik is trying to save his barn.
“The water was of such quantity and depth that I was in a position that I was going to lose my barn,” he said.
Shirley Treitl, 79, is grateful for the assistance of neighbours who fortified her property.
“The neighbours are all wonderful in this area and the men came and helped and did all of this sandbagging and the women filled the bags yesterday.”
While residents work around the clock to protect their properties– many feel the ordeal could have been avoided with better maintenance or replacement of the culverts.
“We should have been proactive instead of reactive and now we’re in a reactive state,” resident Jim Stanley said.
“It’s just inadequate, the whole system is pre-dated for the volume of water we’re getting today,” Popik said.
“We argued last year that something needed to be done,” Treitl added.
Others want the Ministry of Transportation to restore the creek bed in Meyers Flats.
“To re-establish the creek bed would remove the blockage that’s pushing the water back into Willowbrook bowl and causing a lot of this,” said Rick Knodel, the alternate director for Regional District area ‘C.’
“If it doesn’t have somewhere to go it’s going to back up and essentially become a dam.”
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure said in a statement that a hydrologist completed a report following last year’s flooding and recommendations will be considered.
Due to severe rain, the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen is telling people to check on and report any blocked culverts on their property.
It’s also offering sandbags at firehalls in Oliver, Naramata and Willowbrook. Those in Okanagan Falls can pick up sandbags at Keogan Park’s parking lot. People need to bag the sand themselves.
The main issue is that four culverts along Kearns Creek can’t handle high volumes of water from the spring runoff.
Officials say Argo Road Maintenance is responsible for culvert maintenance, and representatives were on site Monday.
They’re also asking people to avoid using the Kettle Valley Railway trail because of washouts and a risk of further damage.
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