Flooding in parts of the Silver Creek community didn’t end with the evacuation of residents of 10 homes two weeks ago.
This past weekend, residents have been rallying around their fellow community members affected by the swollen Salmon River as well as bursting creeks.
In the 500 and 600 blocks of Salmon River Road, hoses have been stretched across, pumping water away from ponds accumulating in residents’ yards.
In the same stretch of road, the rushing Salmon River has been lapping and splashing at the underside of Edes bridge.
Farther south beyond the library, store and school, as Salmon River Road takes a jog to the east, residents have been sandbagging to try to control the water near the bridge there that has overwhelmed properties in that area.
At the Silver Creek Firehall, the Columbia Shuswap Regional District’s Shuswap Emergency Program has kept up a supply of sand and sandbags that is being well-used by residents.
In the 1600 block of Salmon River Road, where residents were evacuated overnight on April 22, some residences are still without driveways after crews diverted what’s known as Andrew Brook or Anderson Creek by creating a ditch along the roadway to carry the water along. That was done after a decommisioned logging road sloughed and the runoff causing it jumped into the existing creek, so residences below were threatened.
In the 1700 block of Salmon River Road, a new culvert was installed under the road last Monday by the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to join up the diverted stream-in-a-ditch with a new ditch the farmer across the road created to send the water to the Salmon River. In the meantime, the water had been pooling in his field, threatening buildings.
Overnight Friday, May 5, farther along in the 2100 block of the road, a creek sprang from the mountainside above, carving a path through the shop of a residence and down the driveway, threatening Salmon River Road and the properties below. With overnight digging and sandbagging, residents were able to redirect it.
Then, with the help of work crews on Saturday, a ditch is now carrying that stream, once again through driveways.
More on these situations to follow.