EAGLE VALLEY
NEWS
Local rockers thrilled to open for Nazareth Page 5
Karate students excel at first tournament Page 7
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Vol. 53 No. 25 Sicamous, B.C., • 1.25 (HST included) • www.eaglevalleynews.com
Homeowners preparing for high water Flood watch: Rivers continue to swell; more rain ahead. By Lachlan Labere and Barb Brouwer Eagle Valley News
With heavy rains and rapid snow melt, some Sicamous homeowners are experiencing one of the cons to lakefront living. Sandbags were going up fast along the foreshore of Mara and Shuswap lakes last weekend to hold off the high water that’s expected to continue to rise over the next week. Sicamous Mayor Darrell Trouton says 10,000 sandbags have already been distributed through the district public works yard off of Sicamous-Solsqua Road. Most of those, he adds, have been used in areas just outside of the district, such as CambieSolsqua. There are another 11,000 bags still at the public works yard, and 12,000 more are on the way, all of which are provided by the Shuswap Emergency Preparedness program. “They fill them themselves and take the bags and make their walls or whatever they want to do,” says Trouton. As the water continues to rise, Trouton says the district will likely be closing down the public pier at The Legacy. A lot of the Beach Park, including the walking path, is already underwater. Trouton says the district will be addressing the sunken pathway in the fall. “We’re talking about raising that walkway that goes through the park, so people have proper access year round through there so they’re not worried about freezing and water in the winter and in the spring like this,” said Trouton. While a ridge of high pressure is expected to move into the area, pushing temperatures into the high 20s and 30s, more rain is expected by the weekend. “It’s the season to be thinking about severe weather,” says Doug Lundquist, warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada, who notes the advancing cold-air system could arrive with severe
Rising waters: Cyclists head underneath the CP Rail bridge along the submerged walking path in the Beach Park. Photo by Lachlan Labere
Bagged: Residents at Sicamous Sands Resort were busy over the weekend setting up a wall of sandbags along the foreshore. Kelly Grams photo thunderstorms. “June is normally wet; I call it the monsoonal month, but this one is on steroids.” Between June 1 and 16, the weather station at Salmon Arm Airport measured 80
mm of rain, considerably higher than normal rainfall, which is 63 mm for the entire month. Heavy rain and rapid snowmelt at upper levels has swollen rivers and resulted
in the BC River Forecast Centre issuing a flood warning for the Shuswap River downstream near Enderby, and a flood watch for Shuswap Lake and tributaries, including Eagle River. A flood watch means river levels are rising and will approach or may exceed bankfull, and a flood warning means river levels have exceeded bankfull or will exceed bankfull imminently. The station at Salmon Arm recorded a lake level of 348.76 metres and rising about seven to eight centimetres per day. “Shuswap Lake is expected to continue rising through the next week and peak at approximately 20-year levels,” reads the advisory. By Tuesday morning, the lake level was 349.1 metres – up 10 cm overnight, and City of Salmon Arm public works staff were busy implementing the city’s action plan. “We’re actively starting to protect infrastructure, we’ve contacted Federated See Fast-flowing on page 3