Record high temperatures mean flooding concerns remain in Summerland

Flooding concerns remain in the District of Summerland as warm temperatures continue and the threat of more rain heading into the Victoria Day holiday weekend is forecasted, said district chief administrative officer Linda Tynan.

During a presentation to Summerland council Monday evening, Tynan said even though water levels have stabilized on Aeneas Creek over the past several days, record breaking May temperatures over the past several days have raised flooding concerns along the creek once again.

“It is expected by the end of this week … probably Thursday or Friday, that we could see some significant increases.”

Meanwhile, concerns over water levels in Trout Creek are even more serious as the creek handles upper elevation snowpack that is starting to melt rapidly across the region, said Tynan.

“Our attention is turning to Trout Creek,” she said. “It is running faster than we’ve seen in many years of history. The difference between Trout Creek and Aeneas Creek is Aeneas Creek is largely fed by the lower levels of snowpack. Not all and there still is still more to come. It could foreseeably start to reduce, whereas Trout Creek is largely fed by the upper alpine snowpacks, which is really just getting started with this hot weather.”

There have been several incidents in the district over the past few days where very large trees and stumps came down and blocked culverts and bridges, she said.

“Our staff was kept busy day and night,” she said.

There has also been reported erosion at the Summerland campground, which forced several sites to close a few campsites.

“We’ve been working with the campground operator,” she said.

Several trees and the pathway at Peach Orchard were also assessed and some trees that were considered dangerous were taken down, she said.

Electricity was also cut to two residences on Lakeshore Drive after they filled with water, she said.

The State of Local Emergency remains in place for all properties located along Aeneas Creek and an evacuation alert remains for two other homes near a sand berm that was constructed to control flooding, she said.

Even though water levels haven’t increased in the past couple of days, work crews remain very busy in flood control work, she said.

“Most of the efforts taken were to prevent water from coming down into the downtown,” she said.

There were a number of spots along Aeneas Creek that, if breached, would have resulted in large volumes of water coming through Summerland’s downtown, she said.

The district is providing regular social media updates related to flood risks and an emergency number is also available, she said.

The district will be logging and monitoring all of the calls to ensure that residents remain safe, she said.

There is no way to determine when the water levels on Trout Creek will peak as the series of dams and reservoirs located in the watershed.

“Our dam system and reservoir system … is extensive and it takes a great deal of travel time to access them,” she said. “We don’t have that answer just because we don’t actually know if they’re all spilling and what the temperature is going to be.

“Precipitation plays such a big part. The peak last Thursday was because of precipitation. If we get this really hot spell and then it is followed with precipitation … then we will have more (flooding) to face.”

Okanagan Lake is currently increasing about three inches a day as tributaries throughout the region continue to handle large amounts of water, she said.

Mission Creek in Kelowna is the biggest feeder into Okanagan Lake, but Trout Creek is a big feeder as well, she said.

“Attention have turned very strongly to the lake (levels) as well,” she said. “As you know, it started out much lower than last year, so it’s still significantly lower than last year, but there’s new information coming in each day on the predicted highs for the lake.

“It’s still predicted to go maybe 20 centimetres over full pool, but not the additional that it was last year.”