People in the British Columbia community of Grand Forks are hustling to get ahead of a deluge of melting snow and heavy rainfall after learning a costly lesson about flooding five years ago.
The community not far from the Canada-U. S. border is one of many under threat in B.C.鈥檚 southern and central Interior after a week of record temperatures and predicted rain combine for conditions ripe for flooding.
Grand Forks Mayor Everett Baker says they鈥檝e been shoring up the city鈥檚 defences since 2018 when 95 homes were lost to a flood and they want to avoid a similar situation this year.
Baker says they are keeping a close eye on the weather and focusing on areas of the downtown to protect businesses and infrastructure from the rising waters.
He says the province has supplied the city with temporary dams and sandbags, which are being installed with the help of a crew from the B.C. Wildfire Service.
Parts of the Village of Cache Creek and Okanagan Indian Band land are already under water, flooding homes, businesses and even Cache Creek鈥檚 firehall.
Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta says the water level in the village is the highest flood stage he鈥檚 seen, and sandbagging isn鈥檛 sufficient to keep the floodwaters at bay.
The village evacuated more than a dozen properties as a result, while the Okanagan Indian Band has ordered the evacuation of several properties along Okanagan Lake, west of Vernon.
In Grand Forks, Mayor Baker said he鈥檚 confident the city鈥檚 flood mitigation efforts will stave off the worst case scenario, though he knows other communities are being hard hit already.
鈥淚鈥檝e been watching what鈥檚 going on in Cache Creek and other communities,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 empathize because we were there.鈥�
His daughter鈥檚 home was affected in the last major flooding event, he said, giving him both a personal and professional perspective on the stress of dealing with potential catastrophes.
鈥淢yself and council and our city staff decided this time that we were going to try to be as proactive as possible and get out the protection that we can sooner than later,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hen hopefully we鈥檒l have done enough to protect the city.鈥�
In an update Thursday, Minister of Emergency Management Bowinn Ma said Grand Forks had done an 鈥渆normous amount鈥� of flood mitigation work that other communities could emulate.
She said the upgrade to the diking system is one important measure, but their flood mitigation strategy is about much more.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e actually actively worked with community members to move properties out of flood prone areas in a strategy known as planned retreat,鈥� Ma said. 鈥淭hese are very important strategies, they are difficult for communities to work through, and Grand Forks has managed to do that.鈥�
READ MORE: Evacuation alerts issued for 591 properties in the Boundary region
READ MORE: Highways 1 and 97 in Cache Creek reopen to single-lane traffic
READ MORE: 鈥楽ignificant鈥� flooding could be in store for large parts of B.C., says expert
