Update: 10:20 p.m.
An new evacuation alert has been issued for properties in Lake Country.
The alert affects approximately 580 properties in the area of:
• Beaver Lake Road from Main Street to Bottom Wood Lake Road
• 3193 Hill Road (Kangaroo Creek Farm)
• Konschuh Road – all
• Bottom Wood Lake Road from Berry Road to Lodge Road
• Lodge Road from roundabout to Meadow Road
• Meadow Road - all
• Pawley Court – all
• Taiji Court - all
• Bottom Wood Lake Road – all the way to Wood Lake
• Brun Road - all
• Rolyat Road – all
• Redecopp Road & Court – all
• Reiswig Road – all
• Jeider Street – all
• Woodsdale Road from the Rail Trail through to Woodsdale Court
• Clement Road – all
• Rogers Road – all
• Seymour Road – all
• Turtle Bay Court – all
• 2930 Woodsdale Road (Woodlake RV Park and Marina)
• 2850 Woodsdale Road (Turtle Bay Pub)
• 11871 Hwy 97
Residents in this area should be prepared to leave their homes on short notice should conditions along creeks worsen.
They may also wish to take steps to protect their properties from potential flooding by sandbagging.
Sand and sandbags are avialable in Lake Country at Swalwell Park at 9950 Bottom Wood Lake Rd. Sand only is available at Holiday Park Resort at 415 Commonwealth Rd.
An evaculation order was also issued within Okanagan Indian Band IR#7 for:
• 361 Wonder Way at 415 Commonwealth Road
For a full list of all current evacuation orders and alerts visit: cordemergency.ca
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3:30 p.m.
Hope and shovel.
That is the mantra for many Lake Country residents today facing evacuation alerts and trying to redirect rampaging spring runoff from encroaching on their homes.
With thunderstorm in the forecast starting Thursday, the community is pulling together, neighbours helping neighbours, to put up walls of sandbags and digging diversion trenches to prevent their homes from being flooded.
Margaret Christhenfen, a property owner on Bottom Wood Lake Road, said “a lot of good people” were helping her and others to fortify their properties.
“I don’t know where all these people are coming from to help but it says a lot about our community,” she said.
Christhenfen looked outside her home at 7 a.m this morning to see Middle
Vernon Creek water flow had overwhelmed the road culvert near the intersection of Bottom Wood Lake Road and Mayrus Road, creating a new channel flowing north along the homes fronting Bottom Lake Road and Winfield Community Gardens.
“It’s Mother Nature so there is not much you can do to stop it,” she said of the water flowing from Duck Lake to Wood Lake.
“I have lived here for 20 years and I have never seen water coming this way. I just hope the flow into Wood Lake doesn’t get backed up by debris getting stuck at the (water intake) point.”
Christhenfen has been out all day digging a trench and filling sandbags, as water up to her knees flows past her property.
“I am doing okay so far,” she said of the flooding. “My neighbour across the street is worse off as his house is surrounded by water.”
Anna Warwick Sears, executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board, said the rainfall remains the wildcard in how much worse the runoff and subsequent flooding will be.
Warwick Sears said the rainfall speeds up the rate of snowfall melt in the higher elevations of the valley watersheds and adds a surge of water to area creeks, streams and lakes.
The District of Lake Country has already imposed a no-irrigation water use because of the impact on the upper Wood Lake watershed caused by the torrential runoff.
“Filling a sprayer is okay, but all farmers are being asked not to irrigate right now,” said Lake Country Mayor James Baker.
The water advisory requests all residents turn off their sprinkler systems and not to fill up their swimming pools, and to abstain from redirecting water into sanitary sewer lines as the volume of water will compromise the system and create potential health and environmental impacts.
What is being felt for Bottom Wood Lake Road and neighbouring street residents is the result of Duck Lake exceeding its maximum volume, in turn caused by the runoff from Clark Creek off Beaver Lake Road.
Duck Lake has already overflowed its banks and concern remains about the sudden influx of water on the Wood Lake shoreline.