The Central Okanagan remains on flood watch. Emergency crews remain deployed through the Central Okanagan and are taking several proactive measures to address flood risks.
Given the potential for further flooding, civic crews and contractors have been tasked with bolstering and protecting infrastructure at critical locations.
Work includes:
Dike construction and aqua dam installed along Mission Creek in Kelowna
Protective measures at Bellevue Creek in Kelowna including channelling and aqua dam installation
Equipment deployment on Scotty Creek
Sandbagging at key infrastructure locations throughout the Central Okanagan
Shipping in eight kilometres’ worth of additional, portable aquadams, due to arrive Saturday, May 13
Removing multiple log jams and clearing culverts
Monitoring creeks by air and land and having crews on standby to remove log jams
Keeping sandbags and sand stations continually stocked throughout the Central Okanagan
Providing Lake Level Flood Watch Maps to keep residents, businesses owners, and property managers advised of potential risks and help them prepare
Advance planning for multiple future scenarios
Despite less severe than expected weather Thursday night and Friday morning, unstable weather remains in the forecast through Sunday. This is a weather driven, complex event with several moving inputs such as rain, temperature, wind and snowpack melt which can change quickly.
Okanagan Lake is already 7 centimetres above full pool and is expected to continue to rise. Runoff has been less significant than expected. In larger river systems, rivers are still expected to continue to respond through the day on Friday, and into Saturday. Mission Creek flow has been downgraded from an unprecedented follow of 155 m3/s to 60 m3/s.
Visit the Environment Canada website at for weather, stream and lake flow monitoring.
The Central Okanagan is not out of the woods yet and the message to “stay prepared” remains as important as ever; get tips here.
