(Image Credit: Chad Klassen / CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

SPRING FLOOD PREP

City flood preparations in place ahead of North and South Thompson River peak

May 11, 2020 | 5:01 PM

KAMLOOPS — The city is preparing for the worst flood in more than 20 years. It’s contracted Extreme Excavator to put up Hesco baskets along Rivers Trail at Riverside Park.

“The key there is we’re protecting the critical sanitary sewer infrastructure that runs through the park,” said the city’s ulilities manager, Greg Wightman.

“We need to make sure that doesn’t get overwhelmed, as it leads into one of our major pump station in town.”

One by one, the workers are moving the dirt around to fill the baskets, which have been provided to the city by the province. By the end of the week, the Hesco baskets will line the entire Rivers Trail.

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The city is taking precautionary measures as it projects floods that could be anywhere between the 1999 flood that had most of Riverside Park under water and 1972, a historic flood that hit Westsyde when the North Thompson River broke its banks.

“River Forecast Centre is predicting somewhere around a one-in-20 (year) event, and what that means in terms of what people might remember is between a 1972 and 1999 flood level,” noted Wightman. “That’s certainly what we’re preparing for. We’re going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best.”

The low- and mid-elevation snowpack has already melted, but the B.C. River Forecast Centre says there’s still plenty of water to come from the high-elevation melt.

“This is a year when both the North and South Thompson are above normal,” notes hydrologist Jonathan Boyd. “So for May 1, the North Thompson was at 118 per cent of normal, and the South Thompson on May 1 was 124 per cent of normal.”

Historically, Kamloops has run into flooding problems when both the North and South Thompson Rivers peak at around the same time. With the City taking the steps to protect Riverside Park, it is reminding residents with waterfront property to do the same before it’s too late.

“If you do live along the river or any creek right now, you need to be preparing your homes for very high water — waters that we haven’t seen in 20 years,” said Wightman.

The city has seen the rivers rise 20 to 30 centimetres per day recently, but Wightman says any rain event will speed up the flooding conditions around Riverside Park and other parts of the city.

Wightman says it won’t be until late May or early June until water will reach the Rivers Trail at Riverside Park.