Imperilled Westside welcomes soldiers
45 troops from Edmonton help with sandbagging to protect Green Bay from rising waters of Okanagan Lake
Members of the Canadian military descended on West Kelowna Friday morning to fill and pile sandbags in the Green Bay neighbourhood.
“We just found out early this morning we had the military coming, which was a surprise to us,” Brent Watson, West Kelowna Fire Rescue assistant chief, said Friday morning.
Forty-five troops from Lord Strathcona’s Horse based at the Canadian Forces base in Edmonton are in West Kelowna to help protect against flooding.
“Right now, our primary focus is protecting our critical infrastructure, but the nature of our infrastructure in Green Bay requires us to protect the entire neighbourhood to protect our infrastructure,” said Watson.
While the military has responded previously to help during wildfires, Watson said this is the first time he has seen soldiers respond to a flood.
“I think it just reflects the reality that the southern part of the province is facing a real threat from floods,” he said. “We have a lot of work to be done here.”
Green Bay resident Bea Kline said she was grateful to see the soldiers in her neighbourhood Friday morning.
“We are all so thankful because of what we went through last year,” she said, referring to flooding of properties along the shore of Okanagan Lake in 2017. “It was havoc.”
Neighbour Jean Buckner agreed, saying she was very concerned about the water level rising.
“I have to be positive . . . but you can never predict Mother Nature,” said Buckner. “We really don’t want to see any devastation again and go through what we went through last year. We appreciate all the help we’re getting.” Troops from Lord Strathcona’s Horse were also deployed to Penticton to support flood operation relief in the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen.
They arrived Friday and were sent to various places in the region, including the Twin Lakes area near Penticton.
As of Friday, Okanagan Lake was at 342.45 metres. It is now expected to rise to record 2017 levels, when the lake hit 343.251 metres.
Officials in the Okanagan are also receiving help from B.C. Wildfire Service crews and contractors to protect key infrastructure in low-lying areas.
Property owners are responsible for the protection of their own property, docks and marine infrastructure.
Meanwhile, an evacuation order has been rescinded for two properties in the North Westside, the emergency operations centre announced late Friday afternoon.
Property owners at 8645 Westside Rd. N. and 8635 Ewings Landing Rd. can go home.