Very few property owners in Osoyoos – and many other parts of the South Okanagan – will let their guards down for the next couple of weeks, but it appears the worst may be over when it comes to flooding in this region.
After several weeks of concern – and rightfully so – after a combination of relentless spring rain and warm temperatures that caused massive amounts of snow to melt, lakes, rivers and streams across the region have been flowing at precariously high levels for several weeks.
In places like Kelowna, property owners have been on high alert for weeks as Mission Creek was flowing at near record levels.
There has been some widespread flooding of properties in sections of Peachland as Okanagan Lake levels continued to rise for weeks on end, but there hasn’t been any catastrophic flooding some experts were calling for.
Here in Osoyoos, there has been a lot of property owners piling up dozens of sandbags to protect their homes and businesses over the past several weeks.
The residents of this community once again showed their tremendous community spirit as neighbours were out helping neighbours divert water from property, fill sandbags and basically do whatever it took to help out during a difficult time.
As a result, the vast majority of property owners have managed to escape without any significant damage.
With water levels on Osoyoos Lake finally decreasing, it appears the worst is over and concerns over possible widespread flooding in this community are thankfully diminishing.
It has been a very anxious and traumatic few weeks for property owners who live in low lying areas or near Osoyoos Lake and hopefully these same people won’t have to go through anything like this for many years to come.
When you consider that the near-record high lake levels in many lakes, rivers, streams and creeks across the entire South Okanagan were ripe for potential disaster, we should all be thankful things have turned out the way they have.
There is still a lot of snow that will melt in the mountains, but most experts believe the worst is over and that’s very good news.
If the weather conditions over the past three or four weeks had been different and we continued to be hit with heavy rain – which is often the case in the South Okanagan in late May and much of June – things could have turned out much, much worse.
