Lake up another 5 cm; creeks now the worry
The Okanagan Sunday
Okanagan Lake rose another five centimetres from Friday to Saturday morning to 343.05 metres.
The BC River Forecast Centre has predicted there is the potential for Okanagan Lake to rise to 343.15 metres.
Currently, the biggest concern for emergency officials in the Central Okanagan is the increased flow of Mission Creek, said Carla Weadon, spokesperson for the Central Okanagan emergency operations centre.
“We are anticipating a significant increase in the flows in Mission Creek over the next couple of days, due to the hot weather and there is still significant snowpack left at high elevations that feeds into Mission Creek,” she said.
“The properties around the mouth of Okanagan Lake and Mission Creek certainly have an increased potential for flooding.”
Crews are looking into additional mitigation efforts along Mission Creek between Lakeshore bridge and Okanagan Lake, said Weadon.
This could include aquadams or gabion barriers, which are already present in many areas around the Okanagan, she said.
Residents are encouraged to leave sandbag barriers in place and to bolster them where needed.
“I think the windstorm on Tuesday was a wakeup call for people living along the lake, and the lake is already 15 centimetres higher than it was during that storm,” said Weadon.
“It's going to take some time for the lakes levels to reduce; we'll continue to have wind and rain events that will continue to challenge us for quite some time.”
On Saturday afternoon, new evacuation alerts were activated for five properties located off the north end of Westside Road, including 9415 Hodges Rd., 9425 Hodges Rd., 9435 Hodges Rd., 9445 Hodges Rd., and 9467 Kilkenny Pl.
All other evacuation alerts and orders remain in effect.