By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
The Town of Osoyoos, along with partners from the RDOS, regional member municipalities and local First Nations, hosted a “Tiger Dam” demonstration on Sunday March 30, in Gyro Park.
The training exercise was to help familiarize first responders, utility workers and public works crews with how to install the Tiger Dam flood barriers when there is a threat of flooding.
In January, 2025, the Town of Osoyoos, RDOS, Lower Similkameen Indian Band and the Village of Keremeos all applied for grants through the UBCM Community Emergency Preparedness Fund (CEPF) and were jointly awarded a $600,000 grant for Tiger Dams and two transport trailers.
The Tiger Dams, which are filled with water, are also modular and can be connected to create barriers of varying lengths. Each of the recently acquired trailers contains 914 metres (3,000 ft.) of Tiger Dams comprising 60 tubes.
The Tiger Dam system is modular and can be connected together to make virtually any length of barrier.
Town of Osoyoos photo
The Tiger Dam-equipped trailers will provide coverage across all nine RDOS Electoral Areas, six municipalities, and four First Nation communities, according to the RDOS.
“If there are no flooding events in the region, these units may also be deployed – at the request of the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR) – to support other communities in the province,” an RDOS spokesperson added.
With such a wide area of coverage the two Tiger Dam equipped trailers will be stationed strategically, the RDOS said, with one located centrally in the Okanagan Valley to support communities across the Okanagan and Similkameen and the other positioned in Coalmont to serve Electoral Area “H”. Coalmont is located on the Tulameen River northwest of Princeton.
“If there is potential for a higher risk of flooding, the trailers and crews can be proactively moved anywhere within the contributing communities to help assist in reducing damages and threats to life, property, infrastructure, and commercial transportation,” the spokesperson said.
