Residents in Kelowna’s Joe Rich neighbourhood have been affected by washouts, mudslides and creeks that have turned into raging mini-rivers.
John Collinson is watching part of his yard wash away as Darley Creek’s banks collapse.
“Our property is being destroyed,” he said. “It breaks my heart.”
Land that once looked like a park now looks like a gravel pit, Collinson said.
“You hear boulders rolling down the creek, and it goes ‘Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk,’ and you hear this all night long,” he said. “And it’s not just little rocks. They’re boulders.”
Monti Phillpot is worried the water will flood his campground.
“I cancelled out people I had coming this weekend, and now I’m worried about the long weekend,” he said.
On Thursday, officials had been worried that the bridge across Darley Creek might wash out, isolating homes up along Philpott Road.
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“The water was so high, it was splashing right up and going over the bridge,” Phillpot said.
An evacuation order was given to eight properties on Wednesday. It was rescinded on Friday after crews spent time working on the bridge and water levels dropped.
Residents are also facing detours because of road washouts.
“Unfortunately, the other day with all the rain and the creeks breaching, everything happened at once. We lost a road on Gaudie, we lost a road on Huckleberry, we had two breaches on Philpott,” said Shelley Duke, the spokesperson for Joe Rich’s community road improvement committee.
It could take a while for crews to find a fix, Duke added.
“It’s too unsafe at this point for the workers. It’s too unsafe for residents. Water is increasing and still continuing to undermine Gaudie in particular,” she said.
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