Minor flooding in Kamloops as rain keeps falling
The city's low-lying areas are seeing some flooding after today's (April 26) heavy rainfall, but city staff are not anticipating the volumes of water that have led to evacuation alerts in other Interior communities.
Chris Jackson, assistant utilities manager for Kamloops, said the public-works department has had reports of street, yard and alley flooding in Brocklehurst and North Kamloops.
Crews are out patrolling the city's usual problem spots and Jackson said contractors are also working with the city to clear out leaf-clogged catch basins and pump out the worst flooding on roadways.
"We've got less than 50 phone calls so far as of 1 p.m. here, so we're not doing too bad," he told KTW.
"We're getting a handle on it. The rain has lightened up a bit and, hopefully, it doesn't rain too much harder and we should be able to keep it under control."
Jackson said the northern portion of the city is more prone to flooding because its storm system doesn't flow out to the river the way it does downtown.
"They're basically just big pits filled with rocks and, when there's a lot of rain, these pits fill up and we have to go and pump them," he said.
While Jackson expects the city to monitor the situation as rain continues, he said the rainfall has little effect on local river levels.
West Kelowna, Kimberley and other Interior communities have declared local states of emergency or have gone on evacuation notice after heavy rains and snowmelt caused nearby creeks and lakes to rise dramatically.
The B.C. River Forecast Centre issued a high streamflow advisory for the South Interior yesterday (April 25), but also said the weather isn't expected to lead to flooding for medium and large river systems.
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