Creek spills banks, prompting evacuations in South Okanagan
Flooding triggered evacuation orders for 93 properties in Okanagan Falls and Osoyoos, and also severed a vital transportation link between the region and the B.C. coast Thursday afternoon.
The evacuations in Okanagan Falls were ordered Thursday morning by the Regional District of OkanaganSimilkameen after Shuttleworth Creek began spilling into a residential area.
“It’s been pretty wild today. The water’s still rising and hopefully it peaks in the next few days,” said Cameron Baughen, an information officer for the RDOS emergency operations centre.
A BC Wildfire Service crew was expected to be reassigned from the Twin Lakes area today to assist with flood-mitigation efforts in Okanagan Falls, he noted, while heavy equipment has also been called in to rebuild and armour the banks of Shuttleworth Creek.
Baughen added the (evacuation) order will continue indefinitely “until we see what we can do with Shuttleworth Creek.”
The evacuation order applies to properties on Maple Street, Brockie Place, McLean Creek Road, 14th Avenue and Mimac Court.
As of 4 p.m., 27 people from 14 families had registered at an emergency evacuation centre.
Among those evacuated was Shawn Rouw, who has lived on 14th Avenue for 11 years.
“The last couple days we’ve been steadily watching the water levels climb,” said Rouw as he took a break from sandbagging.
The situation seemed to have stabilized, but “it just kind of all broke loose (Wednesday) night.”
Also on Thursday, the RDOS issued an evacuation order for 39 homes in the Solana, Harbour Key and Willow Beach areas of Osoyoos due to the rise of Osoyoos Lake, which is being pumped up by the swollen Okanagan and Similkameen rivers.
And a local state of local emergency was declared for Area E (Naramata), the last of eight RDOS rural areas to get such a declaration for all or part of it.
Meanwhile, Highway 3 is closed indefinitely 14 kilometres west of Keremeos due to the Similkameen River spilling onto it.
Motorists are being advised to detour on the Okanagan Connector.
The Central Okanagan’s emergency response centre said there had been localized flooding and record creek flows in the area including Kelowna. Mission Creek reached a record flow rate overnight on Wednesday, the centre said.
Crews in Kelowna responded to reports of localized flooding along Parsons Road and the 4800 block of Lakeshore Road.
In Joe Rich, an evacuation order was issued for eight properties on Philpott Road because of concerns that a bridge was at risk of washing out and leaving the residents isolated.
Washouts also resulted in closures at the 2000 block of Huckleberry Road and the 6300 block of Goudie Road in Joe Rich.
The flooding has resulted from a combination of a record-setting snowpack along with unseasonably warm temperatures followed by heavy rains this week.