By Greg Fry/Tanya Cronin

Kamloops Fire Rescue: beware of rapidly-rising water levels

Apr 30, 2018 | 4:24 PM

KAMLOOPS — Be careful around those creeks and small streams in Kamloops.

Kamloops Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Dan Sutherland is urging people to take note now that freshet has begun.

“We are seeing the water levels in our tributary streams such as Peterson Creek, Noble Creek, Tranquille Creek just to name a few, rise rapidly here as the low and mid-elevation snowpack is receding and melting away with the warmer weather we’re having.”

In light of the change in weather, Sutherland says conditions can change quite rapidly “within a matter of minutes,” in fact.

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“As such, keep all your children, everybody should be staying away, animals as well. This advice certainly applies now more than ever.”

Sutherland estimates these conditions will last for a number of weeks.

“These rivers and small tributaries are more dynamic in their flow rates. They’ll go up and down with heavy rainstorms as well. We’ve seen that firsthand unfortunately in Westsyde just a few years back where we had large scale overland flooding as a result of an extreme rain event.”

As for the North and South Thompson rivers, he says we can expect to see those start to rise more rapidly as the mid-elevation snowpack starts coming off in the next two to four weeks.

“Typically, we won’t see that peak until the end of June. But again, it’ll be weather-related and we’ll keep the public advised on what’s happening with those larger rivers.”