As the south Okanagan community of Willowbrook continues to struggle with flooding, the province plans to remove part of a road to help address the flood threat.
However, as multiple levels of government plan a significant flood mitigation effort, some in the community are questioning why more wasn’t done sooner.
A major issue involves water pooling in Kearns Creek because four culverts along the waterway can’t handle the high volume of water coming down the creek.
To address this, the province is taking out part of Meyers Road.
After the road section is removed, the local fire department and regional district will be using a pump to move water from Kearns Creek overtop of another bottleneck point, Carr Crescent.
The regional district said this will decrease “the largest pool of water affecting residents.”
Officials also plan to use a pump at Goldtau Road.
The hope is that removing these backlogs of water behind culverts in the creek will cause the water level in the creek to drop and improve the situation for Willowbrook residents with flooded basements.
Homeowners said the flood mitigation work is better late than never.
“Now it’s a big problem. Had preventative measures been taken, we wouldn’t be standing here today,” Willowbrook resident Eric Berg said.
“Nothing gets done until we have a crisis.”
The regional district admits more resources may have to be dedicated to flood prevention in the future.
“Currently we don’t have anyone in the regional district to deal with flooding. I think that will be a discussion that will occur after this event,” RDOS information officer Cameron Baughen said.
– with files from Shelby Thom