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Penticton, B.C. properties damaged following flash flood

Click to play video: '86 properties damaged by flash flooding in Penticton'
86 properties damaged by flash flooding in Penticton
86 properties damaged by flash flooding in Penticton – Jul 5, 2022

More than 12 mm of rain fell in just 45 minutes on Monday, trigging flash floods throughout Penticton, B.C.

The Emergency Operations Centre received 86 reports of properties damaged by flooding across the community.

“Usually, the rain falls over a longer period of time and our infrastructure can handle that and deal with the rain flow events. But once it all happens at once, then you get the block-ups and debris and all those sorts of things so it’s quite unique,” said Emergency Operations Centre director Anthony Haddad.

Haddad said the damage is widespread throughout the community, impacting a range of businesses and family homes.

“Some larger complexes in terms of basement flooding, lower-level parking lot floodings, so it’s a range of different properties spread out throughout the community,” said Haddad.

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The city declared a local state of emergency on Monday to allow emergency crews to access private properties.

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“We had approximately 50 staff out in the field dealing with the responses to the issues made up of our fire department, building engineering staff and public works staff,” said Haddad.

Click to play video: 'Kelowna residents monitoring Mission Creek'
Kelowna residents monitoring Mission Creek

“We had our eight rapid response teams in the field as well and they were visiting the individual properties that called in with their concerns around the flooding event from yesterday.”

Crews returned to the 86 properties and stormwater infrastructure on Tuesday to assess damages and cleanup. The severity of all the damage is unknown at this time.

“Our public infrastructure teams, they’re making sure that the stormwater infrastructure is clear of any debris that may have come into the system during the event and making sure that those pipes and underground infrastructure [are] ready for any future events,” added Haddad.
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More severe weather is in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday and the Emergency Operations Centre said they will be monitoring weather patterns over the next couple of days.

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