More evacuated residents were allowed to return home Wednesday as the Town of Osoyoos lifted evacuation orders on 45 homes at Paradise Park and one on Kingfisher Drive.
As evacuated residents return home after the floods, officials are offering advice on safety precautions residents should follow.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, Osoyoos Lake had dropped to 913.70 feet above sea level – its lowest level since May 6, when the lake was rising rapidly.
While that’s still more than a foot and a half above the 912-foot level that is the target for this time of year, greatly diminished snowpacks mean renewed flooding is unlikely unless there are extreme rain events.
Prior to the weekend, the Town of Osoyoos lifted evacuation orders and alerts for a number of properties in town, allowing residents to return home.
On Friday, May 25, the town lifted the evacuation orders on 15 properties, all on Solana Key Drive.
At the same time, it rescinded evacuation alerts for 80 homes on 67 properties.
Later the same day, the town lifted evacuation orders on a further 37 properties, mostly on Harbour Key Drive, but also including five properties on Cottonwood and one on Spartan Drive.
The town is continuing to conduct rapid damage assessments of evacuated properties to determine if homes or structures are safe as lake levels continue to drop.
Meanwhile, as of Monday, high streamflow advisories were ended on both the Okanagan and Similkameen Rivers.
Dave Campbell, head of the B.C. River Forecast Centre, told media in a conference call on Monday that only areas with very high elevation mountains, such as in the Kootenays and Columbia, continue to face flood risk from high snowpack levels.
Other parts of the province now have below-normal snowpacks because the early extreme temperatures made the freshet season several weeks ahead of normal.
Despite warm weather on the weekend, river flows continue to drop, Campbell said.
For advice on safety precautions when returning home after a flood, see the information on “Returning to Normal, Once the Flood Threat Has Passed,” by clicking on “Flood Info” on the Town of Osoyoos website at osoyoos.ca, or visit rdos.bc.ca for EOC info.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
