Hopefully, the flooding we’ve seen this week in Willowbrook, along with the washouts and other rain-related events around the valley, isn’t an indication of things to come, either for this spring or into the future.
But they could be. Certainly, some of the conditions, like a snowpack well above normal, are there. Combine that with more heavy rain events and that snow could start melting faster than the creeks, rivers and lakes could handle, just like last year.
Governments haven’t been caught napping. The gates are open on the dam to drop the water level in Okanagan Lake, and municipalities have been working to ensure their own systems are clear and ready to handle the runoff.
But it may be that we need to look at a larger and longer-term picture. One bad year of flooding and the beginnings of another isn’t enough to say there will be flooding every spring. Still, with the reality of climate change, it bears looking at.
It may be that communities will need to start preparing earlier. Rather than bringing out sand and sandbags when disaster hits, municipalities may need to start preparing a stockpile of filled sandbags in early March, and sand could be placed at strategic locations before it was needed.
During last year’s flooding, Penticton benefitted from the assistance of a crew of wildfire fighters, who helped volunteers and city crews fill and place sandbags.
It may be time for the province to invest more heavily in that kind of service, making crews available year-round to help with natural emergencies.
Regardless of what the future brings, we can be sure Mother Nature will continue to be unpredictable and, in a province as large as B.C., floods and fires will be a problem in one region or another.