Following a forecast for heavy rain and possible flooding, some Okanagan residents made sure they weren’t going to be caught off guard like last Thursday.
“I thought, ‘Well, we better start putting some bags up,’ the city dropped off a whole whack of sandbags and I started at around 5 in the morning,” said John Vankooten, a Kelowna resident.
John Vankooten was lining his property and that of his neighbours with sandbags, anticipating the creek’s water level would rise by midday.
“We are so prepared now compared to two years ago. I don’t think anybody knew what to do, but now, everybody is prepared for what’s going on,” said Vankooten.
The City of Kelowna has taken measures to help Okanagan residents, as staff dropped off thousands of pounds of pre-bagged sandbags around the city.
City staff have also removed thousands of pounds of debris in rivers and creeks, that led to last Thursday’s flash flood.
“The city is unbelievable right now, they were right on top of it like last week,” said Vankooten.
Residents aren’t the only ones preparing for peak flood season.
The Kelowna Fire Department was training at the fast-moving waters of Mill Creek on Wednesday.
“The engine crew from station 2 has come down to practice our swift-water techniques,” said Capt. AJ Chatham with the Kelowna Fire Department.
Creek-side walkers saw four firefighters throwing a rescue rope into the water, simulating a rescue.
The fire department says the rescue training is important, especially at this time of the year.
“The creeks are running hard, probably going to be running faster as the weeks come along here and temperatures come up,” said Chatham.
“With isolation ending soon, people will be getting out on the trails and getting close to the creeks. It doesn’t take much for someone to take a tumble.”
Looking ahead, the B.C. River Forecast Centre says the Okanagan is entering its peak flooding season.
Campbell says while the short-term forecast is looking good for the Okanagan region, with only a low risk for flooding, next week could be a different story.
“We’re starting to see a hint from the weather model output into next week, so we may be in for a bit more of a wetter pattern,” said Campbell.
Campbell says the weather projections are a bit too far into the future to be reliable, but he says the BC Rivers Forecast Centre will be keeping a close eye on the situation as it develops.