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Update on flooding in Armstrong, Salmon Arm

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Update on flooding in Armstrong, Salmon Arm
Residents in Armstrong and Salmon Arm are dealing with flooded basements and yards. Jules Knox reports on what they're up against – May 12, 2018

Kim Butler is fighting her battle with water one inch at a time.

She’s frustrated she can’t stop the groundwater from seeping into her basement in Armstrong.

“There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s impossible to deal with,” she said.

New to her neighbourhood, she was also surprised to get an evacuation alert as water levels started rising.

“I was actually pretty stunned. I thought, ‘Oh my god, is it really that bad out there?’ But you look everywhere else, it’s all over the place,” she said.

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Her neighbours are also battling groundwater problems.

“I put a sump pump in, but it still comes. It still creeps in,” Armstrong resident Donna Carlsen said. “I just can’t keep up.”

In Salmon Arm, the water level for Salmon River is up to the bottom of the bridge crossing the highway.

“If any big logs come down, we talk to the excavator operator to see if it’s in a spot that will compromise anything, and if he has to take it out, we’ll move [his machine] onto the bridge,” Rebecca Yuill, a worker tasked with monitoring the bridge, said.
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In the event that happens, crews are trying to keep bridge traffic closed for less than an hour, she said.

Crews have only had to clear debris a handful of times, Yuill added.

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