By Bud Truswell
Much has changed in Kelowna since the floods of 1948. The banks of the Mission Creek have been built up and new development along the creek has changed the flow pattern. One family has remained in their house at the mouth of Mission Creek through the flood of ’48 and 2017.
The Truswell Family have occupied this house at the mouth of Mission Creek since 1940 and I moved in when I was three weeks old in March 1941, and now it is passed to my grown children.
As a historical side-note (to the current floods) my father, Harold A “Trus” Truswell, went through the 1948 flood all alone here at the house (that must have been scary) because he sent my mother and I to Seattle to stay with my mother’s sister until the flood receded.
He did this because he was afraid that I might contact polio and it was suggested to him by the heads of local public health service, Dr. Helen Zeeman and Dr.Clark, to get me out of harm’s way. My father was friends with the public health service because he had sold them a fleet of cars from the Ford dealership.
Dad and his German pointer dog Paddy walked the double sandbags from the front gate down the driveway to the kitchen front door for several weeks until the water receded in 1948. Leaving his vehicle at the roadway, dad told me that the water reached seven inches below the hardwood floors at the height of the flood water (343.28 Meters above sea level).
As the song goes “this old house has seen it all” and as stubborn as this family is we will again survive the flood of 2017.
A big thank you in 2017: The Truswell family would expressly like to thank Ed and Viida Ruff and the BC crews of Forest Fire fighters for their untiring effort to help with installing flood prevention measures. We greatly appreciate all the efforts that have been directed to save our house and this property on Okanagan Lake.
