Appeal to boaters: don’t make waves
Owners of waterfront homes along brimming Okanagan Lake worry wake will swamp docks
Nervous owners of lakefront homes around Kelowna are appealing for boaters to go slow along the shore this holiday weekend.
Some docks are already under water as Okanagan Lake rises, and wakes from fast-moving boats could swamp other wharves and erode shoreline property.
“For us, calm water is safe water,” said Lynda Would, whose family owns a waterfront home on Casa Loma Road in West Kelowna.
“But the wakes from passing boats can wreak havoc on docks that are already undergoing stress from the high water,” said Would, who can recall the lake being as high as it currently is only once before, in 1997.
Many residents of Casa Loma, like people living in other waterfront communities in the Central Okanagan, have been sandbagging their own properties as well as those of their neighbours.
Joe Gluska, who lives at the corner of Casa Loma Road and Campbell Road, joined a group helping a waterfront neighbour fill more than 500 sandbags.
“There’s real concern here on how this weekend is going to play out,” said Gluska, treasurer of the Casa Loma Residents Association.
“Not only is this the long weekend like the first weekend of summer, but the weather forecast say it’s going to be pretty nice, so there will probably be a lot of boats out there, kicking up wakes,” Gluska said.
Several docks in Casa Loma are already under water. Sandbags have been piled as high as 1.2 metres in some areas, including municipally owned pocket parks along the lakeshore. And Ministry of Forests firefighters are helping residents to sandbag their yards.
The lake was measured at 342.75 metres on Thursday, up two centimetres from Wednesday, with continued high water likely for weeks.
“These conditions are expected to last well into June (due to) the amount of snow in higher elevations expected to melt with the warmer temperatures in the forecast,” said a release from Central Okanagan Emergency Operations.
Sunny skies and highs in the low 20s are expected today and Saturday, rising to 24 C on Sunday and 26 C on Victoria Day and Tuesday.
Water was being released at the south end of Okanagan Lake at the Penticton dam at a rate of 71 cubic metres per second on Thursday, considerably above the structure’s official design maximum of 60 cubic metres per second.
For comparison, that’s about six times faster than water typically flows out of the lake between September and March.
Most municipally owned boat launches in the Central Okanagan remained open Thursday.
But boaters were reminded by officials there is a speed limit of 10 km/h within 30 metres of shore, and to be especially vigilant for partially submerged logs and branches that could damage vessels and cause injury to wakeboarders.
The City of Kelowna has closed beaches at these publicly owned waterfront parks: Sutherland, City, Strathcona, Kinsmen, Rotary, Francis Avenue, Lake Avenue and Maude Roxby.
“We’ve made the call to close these beach areas until the flood protection measures can be removed,” said parks services manager Blair Stewart.
Sandbag defences were being constructed Thursday at the following regional district parks: Kalamoir, Okanagan Centre Safe Harbour, Bertram Creek, Kaloya and the Gellatly Nut Farm.
“While these parks remain open, we ask that visitors not touch any sandbags and other flood protection,” said regional district spokesman Bruce Smith.
These regional parks are closed to the public because of high-water concerns: Glen Canyon, Hardy Falls, Mill Creek and Killiney Beach.