May 10, 2018
Looks like we are going to be flooded again
Over the past few days the lake has been up 8″ over a 24 hour period and then 11″ over 24 hours and now we are rising very quickly. Yesterday we had massive rain and it created havoc everywhere. They say that that amount of rain may take a few days to show a rise in water levels. There are problems everywhere here in the Okanagan. Creeks overflowing and road washouts, etc.
It rained all of Tuesday night and most of yesterday, Wednesday. The only good news is that we have not had to water our very saturated garden.
The intensity of rain varied. It was cool enough for us to relight our pilot light on the fireplace. My grass really is looking that green.
Between showers, my wacky neighbor got up on his RV roof in his underwear to apply tons of caulking. Guess his old RV was leaking. I was sitting at my desk and stood up to stretch and looked and and saw this….OMG, what next. This is the dude that was cleaning his driveway last summer with gasoline and a wire brush in the middle of fire season!! The only reason his RV is allowed in his yard is because the Park storage lot which was ruined by ground water from the flooding last spring is still under construction. If your lot was large enough for your RV you were allowed to store it there. Ours of course has to be stored elsewhere.
This was taken this morning and this, our third step is now well under water at 7:30PM. The water is rising and is close to our fourth step. We have a total of five steps.
We have spent the entire day preparing for flooding. Colin has brought things into the house from underneath. Everything in the shed is raised and we have secured the yard and patio as best we can. Have a read below. This is an email I sent to the person looking after our house once we leave.
It was a busy day and nothing to do with getting ready for our trip. Not very clear to read but we emptied our outdoor freezer ( in the shed ) as the electrical plug will be underwater, moved things into the house from the crawl space as needed, etc.
We are somewhat concerned as our first stop in Italy has a forecast of rain all five days 🙁 A high of 59F is not fun. Creative packing is now required as I had not planned for rain nor cool weather. Not much trip preparedness today due to working the imminent flood situation. We contacted the manager of the park and he basically said that their priority was to protect the recreation center and the condos. The rest of us were on our own as they did not have the man power. We did not expect help but mostly wanted to let them know how quickly the lake was rising and that we were leaving for Europe. Colin did caulk our sewer so that the lake water ( once it reaches that level ) would not allow the water to enter the sewer system thus alleviating too much water entering our sewage treatment plant.
The manager told us that the input flow into our lake from the higher mountain creeks was greater than the output flow at the North end of the lake would allow which is why the lake is rising so quickly. Late this afternoon ‘someone’ was bringing in some heavy equipment ( finally) to clear the outlet so the water could flow out.
Meanwhile the park has closed down the rec center which suggests to me that it is already being compromised. They have also brought in several truck loads of sand today. Time to start filling sand bags 😯
A serene reflective sunset last evening.
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Good luck with your flood waters.
Thanks.
Hi Contessa! We are back. It sure sucks about the flooding situation again,I truly hope you guys have no damage. We are now back from our trip – as for rain in Italy the weather forecast said rain for all our days in Salerno. In fact it only rained 2 of the days and even then was intermittent. Take some warmer clothes and an umbrella but I hope you get the breaks we did. It was supposed to rain the day we went to Amalfi so I was going to cancel that as we were going on the ferry. In the end it didn’t rain at all that day and we had a great time. It rained hard when we were going to do our outside tour of Pompei and then after we took the train there it slowed to a sprinkle and stopped in time for the tour. We were blessed with decent weather and in Paris it was super hot, not a cloud in the sky 28 degrees the whole time we were there. I sure hope you have a good time – don’t let the rain bother you if it happens, just hole up somewhere with some good wine for a few minutes! When it wasn’t raining it was still in the mid-20s
Welcome home and I so appreciate this comment. It helps a lot.
Here’s hoping for the best regarding the flood waters. Ultimately you can only do what you can and let mother nature do her thing… It seems to be the new norm with climate change etc. We hope your trip will be full of excitement.
Happy to be traveling to Europe and not dealing with evacuation. Not much we can do as you say, so on with the trip.
Makes me glad we are hill people! Good luck and enjoy your trip. There will be flooding here in Terrace in the low lying areas as well.
We used to be hill people until we moved here. Life must go on.
The pictures of your view are always so interesting ???. I have enjoyed them all. Hope you stay safe from any flooding while you travel – sounds like you have prepared as best you can.
Thank you. We love our home even now with imminent flooding.
Sure hope the flooding doesn’t get as bad as last year for you! I have a flood blog to write when I get time but things are not as bad here because they were able to lower the level of Okanagan Lake so much.