British Columbia grappling with flood waters, mudslide

British Columbia’s central and southern Interior had received severe thunderstorm advisories for floods caused by rain from Environment Canada on Friday.

State of emergency had been declared in the City of West Kelowna, Kelowna, and the Fintry Delta and evacuation orders had been issued on several properties in and around Okanagan Lake and Kelowna.

People had been warned to stay away from lake shores and river banks, and to avoid driving through flooded areas and residents had been putting sandbags outside their homes hoping to keep the water away.

The province has urged its residents in the affected areas to be far from river and lake shorelines, and to learn to recognise danger signs, such as change in water colour or rapid water level rise, not to drive through flood water and to protect their homes.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark was in Cache Creek late Saturday morning to survey part of the damage.

A search for Cache Creek’s missing fire chief, feared swept away by flood waters, has resumed and  also a senior, in the Shuswap area east of Kamloops, was missing after a home was swept away in a mudslide.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said the mudslide hit Sunnybrae Canoe Point Road in Tappen, east of Salmon Arm, early Saturday morning.

Crews were initially called out at midnight, but had to pull back as conditions worsened.

"It sounded like a freight train coming down the mountain ... We heard trees snapping and it got louder and louder, so we got out of there," Schneider, a local resident was quoted as saying by CBC news.

On Saturday morning, an evacuation alert remained in effect for 90 properties on Okanagan Lake in the Fintry Delta area, south of Fintry Provincial Park.

An evacuation order is also in place for the park.

In the Kamloops area, properties along Cherry Creek just outside of the city were under evacuation order.

There were also warnings of imminent flooding with more rain from Mission Creek to East Kelowna and areas near Vernon, B.C.

Numerous instances of pooling water or flooding on highways were reported from as far north as Kamloops and as far south as Kelowna, and as far west as Cache Creek and as far east as Revelstoke.

At the south end of Okanagan Lake, users of the Lower Sage Mesa Water System, northwest of Penticton, were advised to boil water due to high turbidity.

Boil water advisories had also been issued for the city of Vernon and Westbank First Nation IR#9.

The Thompson-Nicola Region Emergency Operations Centre had been set up for residents who have been told to evacuate immediately and will be coordinating rescues and supplying sandbags for residents hit by various creek floods.

While in some parts of B.C’s interior, rising waters had started receding today after the parts of the region had been hit for the past three days with flooding caused by heavy rain.

According to the River Forecast Centre dry conditions are likely to follow with improvements in weather conditions in the Shuswap, Okanagan and Boundary regions.

Photo : Ministry of Environment BC