Image Credit: Adam Donnelly / CFJC Today

By Dylana Kneeshaw

RAINSTORM DAMAGE

Cleanup underway in Savona after Sunday’s flash flood

Jul 2, 2024 | 5:30 PM

SAVONA, B.C. — It took less than an hour for Sunday’s (June 30) rainstorm to bring on flash flooding, according to Savona residents.

“You’ve seen rain — but not rain like that. And for 40 minutes, continuously,” explains Dave Susanj. “It was pouring. It was pouring down everybody’s street. It was like rivers.”

“Every culvert in town was overflowing and the water started spreading, and it just made a mess everywhere.”

The Thompson Nicola Regional District activated its Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in response, and says it’s planning to have more information about garbage and debris clearing late Tuesday (July 2).

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“We have about 20 homes that have been impacted. Out of those 20, we had a small group of folks who did access Emergency Support Services,” explained EOC Information Officer Amanda Ellison. “Whether they’re uninhabitable or not may not be the best wording, but at the time being they weren’t able to stay in their homes, so they’re accessing those services there.”

No reports of injuries came from the incident and the TNRD says anyone with property damage who hasn’t contacted the district yet can call the EOC at (250) 377-7188.

“We’re just working on some debris management solutions so we should have some more info to go out to residents sometime later [Tuesday or Wednesday] on what to do with debris management and just working through that with the folks there.”

TNRD Director for Electoral Area ‘J’, Mike Grenier, adds help did arrive from the nearby Skeetchestn band, and the regional district was also able to file an application with for Disaster Financial Assistance.

“The TNRD has applied for the Disaster Financial Assistance with the province and while we wait for the province to deal with that file and declare that situation, we’re encouraging homeowners to… register with the TNRD,” said Grenier, noting that as of Tuesday, there are three households staying in area hotels after flooding hit their homes.

With that, Grenier strongly encourages residents to take as many photos as possible to document the damage and register their home address with the regional district’s EOC.

Cleaning up mud and debris is not how most people would want to spend their Canada Day long weekends, but residents in Savona who were affected by the flash flooding Sunday evening say it’s not the first time this has happened.

“It happened six years ago. And all of these culverts have overflowed. And you know, they work for 50 years, say, that they’ve been here but maybe it’s time to upgrade some of these culverts because you can’t have 20 houses flooding every time we have a rain event like this,” notes Susanj.

The roads have since re-opened, along with rail lines, as residents and neighbours take stock of what was damaged and what needs to be cleared away.

“I figure it’s going to be a month before everybody is cleaned up, but now the hot weather is coming,” adds Susanj. “Thank god we have some neighbours who came along and helped out with machinery. Neighbours are helping neighbours and it makes it go a lot nicer.”