Tony Zelko remembers very well the record flood of 1972. He points to the level it reached that year on his pump house, about two feet higher than the level today. (Richard McGuire photo)
With the level of Osoyoos Lake last week climbing close to 915 feet above sea level, records from recent flood years were broken.
But long-time Osoyoos residents remember that flooding 45 years ago was much worse.
Last Friday, the lake reached 914.89 feet, surpassing the levels reached in 2011 and 2013, and only a couple inches short of the 915.09 reached in 1997.
But this year’s high point was still more than two feet below the level it reached in the great flood of 1972, a year that old-timer Tony Zelko remembers very well.
The Osoyoos Times ran into Zelko last week in front of the home where he lived during the 1972 flood at the foot of Lakeshore Drive. Zelko had a tape measure in his hand and he was comparing this year’s water levels with those of 1972.
He pointed to marks on the side of an old pump house sitting at the water’s edge. A nail, he said, marks the level of his basement, which flooded in 1972.
He pointed with his tape to another spot on the pump house – the high level the water reached in 1972.
“I remember clearly how high the water was in 1972,” he said, pointing to the spot roughly two feet above the water’s current level.
On June 3, 1972, 45 years ago, the lake’s level reached 917.06 feet, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The Osoyoos Times in that year put the level at a high point of 917.02 on June 3, 1972, according to B.C. authorities.
Whatever the actual measurement, it was more than two feet higher than the lake reached on Friday.
The water covered Lakeshore Drive and lapped up close to the house where Zelko’s son now lives.
“We could not even drive on the road,” Zelko recalls. “We had to go over the orchard.”
Since then, the road has been raised a couple of feet and Zelko dug around the basement to fortify it, adding pumps. It hasn’t flooded since.
“It was the worst flood I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Zelko, who has lived in Osoyoos for nearly 60 years.
Zelko still has slide photos of the flood, showing the water crossing the road to his house, children building gravel dikes and his own children playing in the water.
A report in the June 8, 1972 Osoyoos Times said some 6,000 sandbags were used and pumping was going around the clock to keep the water level down in flooded buildings.
The sandbags helped to save many buildings from serious damage and some homes and motels were bagged to a level of almost three feet.
Grade 9 and 10 students “were pressed into volunteer service to fill sandbags,” said the report, citing a local alderman, who added that the students worked “extremely hard and proved to be a big help in the crisis.”
The Village of Osoyoos had to cut water and sewer services to the Van Acres and Goodman subdivisions and a campsite at Van Acres was completely under water.
Life-long Osoyoos resident Doug Eisenhut recalls that when he was in Grade 8 during the 1972 flood, he was out of school sandbagging for two weeks.
“I worked at Van Acres Campsite and we had completely sandbagged the property,” Eisenhut said in a post on Facebook. “But in the middle of the night, it broke and flooded acres of land back to the road with two feet of water in the store. Sooooooo disappointing.”
The hardest hit motel was the View Point, which had just been renovated, but many units were inundated with two and a half feet of water. Other motels on the strip suffered damage to floors and walls.
Some homes were also hard hit and the road on Haynes Point was narrowly saved from being washed away, the report said. The Department of Highways worked to keep roads open by building them higher.
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
Other peak flood years:
June 3, 1972 – 917.06 feet
June 1, 1983 – 914.48 feet
June 2, 1986 – 914.29 feet
June 15, 1990 – 913.81 feet
May 23, 1991 – 914.66 feet
June 9, 1996 – 914.04 feet
May 19, 1997 – 915.09 feet
June 13, 2011 – 914.57 feet
May 15, 2013 – 914.17 feet
Source: U.S. Geological Survey
When the water level of Osoyoos Lake rose above 917 feet in 1972, it crossed over Lakeshore Drive and came very close to Tony Zelko’s home. Water actually flooded the basement. They had to drive over the orchard to get out because they couldn’t drive on the road. (Photo courtesy Tony Zelko)
Today, Lakeshore Drive is still above the water and there is no threat to the house, at left, that flooded its basement when Tony Zelko lived in it in 1972. (Richard McGuire photo)
