Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Adel Ahmed

CACHE CREEK FLOOD 2023

Cache Creek extends local state of emergency; cleanup underway

May 8, 2023 | 1:22 PM

CACHE CREEK, B.C. — Residents affected by the Cache Creek floods have begun the cleanup process. A local state of emergency has been extended to May 13 with more than 20 properties on evacuation order and a dozen more on evacuation alert.

“We have to apply to the province each time we want to either enact it or extend it so the province has agreed to extend it given the circumstances.” Information Officer with the Cache Creek Emergency Operations Centre Wendy Coomber told CFJC Today.

At the fire hall, they will have to wait a few days before they can start cleaning up the debris inside.

“We have to wait for the assessment and then we can get machines in there to clean out the three feet of mud,” Fire Chief Tom Moe told CFJC Today. “Then we’ll have to pull everything out and clean it up and then at least we can get the trucks parked back in there.”

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The process of how crews are controlling the river is irritating residents like Chuck Pittman, who has lived in Cache Creek since 1960.

“Them culverts are over-full every year. The problem is, the fisheries will not allow you to go up the river and take the debris that’s gonna float down in flat high water. It comes down and brings logs down the creek. They get to that four-foot pipe, you can’t get them out.”

Along Back Valley Road, the river was raging most of Sunday morning (May 7) as crews try to keep it from breaching its banks. As upset as people are with the pace, Coomber says crews are moving as quickly as possible.

“We’re going as fast as we can. We haven’t forgotten people. We may not have communicated that adequately to them but we are trying to get them back into their properties as fast as we can.”