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Okanagan mudslide misses home, wipes out shed

On Friday night, a mudslide swept down the hill and wiped out a shed on a property between Penticton and Keremeos. Courtesy: Brandon Burchett

A mudslide near Twin Lakes on Friday night wiped out a shed and narrowly missed a home.

Brandon Burchett said his family has a house under construction with a berm behind it on a property near Twin Lakes.

Courtesy: Brandon Burchett

“The mudslide missed the berm, missed the house, but there were two storage sheds close to the bank,” Burchett said. “One was completely wiped out, and we can’t get in the other one because there are three feet of mud up to the door.”

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“A huge swath of mud took out willows and underbrush and part of a road going up to top of mountain.”

Courtesy: Brandon Burchett

Burchett believes the mudslide was caused by the snowmelt. The ground is saturated with water, he said.

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He said his family members were on the property at the time and they described hearing trees snapping.

“They said it sounded like the wind,” he said.

“You go up there now and you can hear a waterfall that wasn’t there before,” he added.

Courtesy: Brandon Burchett

Burchett said he’s going to move big pieces of wood with a backhoe.

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“But we’re going to let Mother Nature take the mud away,” he said. “Mother Nature put the mud there, so she’s going to have to take it away. It would be years and years and years of cleanup to move that amount of mud.”

Courtesy: Brandon Burchett

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