File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Cache Creek High Water

Bonaparte River reaches all-time high in Cache Creek yet stays within its banks

May 9, 2023 | 11:30 AM

CACHE CREEK, B.C. — Officials in Cache Creek say they are puzzled — but in a good way.

Emergency Operations Centre Information Officer Wendy Coomber says the level of the Bonaparte River hit an all-time high for a brief time Monday night (May 8), fed by snowmelt and rain runoff. However, Coomber says the river has yet to spill over its banks, which it has in the past.

Asked how that is possible, Coomber says local officials are asking the same question.

“It means we have an all-time high! It beat the 1990 record just for a short while late last night,” Coomber told CFJC Today on Tuesday. “But that’s why we’re all scratching our heads. We seem to scratch our heads with a new problem every time it floods. It’s hard to predict how it’s going to react as every time it does, it seems to be a little bit different.”

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“We think because it’s been coming up rather slowly, it’s good because it’s not surging as it has done in previous years,” she continued. “We’re happy with that. We are monitoring all of the properties along the river very closely and we’ll let the property owners know if things change.”

The Bonaparte has experienced very high levels in the past, including as recently as 2020, when it had three separate spring peaks. That freshet was heavily impacted by changes to the landscape caused by the massive Elephant Hill wildfire in 2017.

“One reason — just my own speculation — why the banks haven’t been breached yet is, perhaps, that we’ve seen such high flows in 2020 that it scoured out a little bit — made it a little bit wider, a little bit deeper — so it’s able to accommodate higher flows these days.”

While the Bonaparte is high, the creek that gave that community its name is coming down. Coomber says more properties will be coming off of evacuation order Tuesday, including the local elementary school and several businesses in the downtown.

As for the outlook, Coomber says the B.C. River Forecast Centre has indicated the Bonaparte’s level is primarily being influenced by rainfall now, with most snowpack in the area already melted.

Meantime, Coomber says flooding is not a spectator sport. She asks anyone with an inkling to travel to the community to look at the water to, instead, watch news coverage. Coomber says traffic is very heavy and slow through the village.