Skip to content

Peachland on flood watch

District staff said fortunately, there is no serious lakefront damage so far
21880430_web1_180722_KCN_Peachlanders1
People sitting on a Peachland lakefront park bench look out at the rising smoke from the Good Creek wildfire burning across Okanagan Lake in Okanagan Mountain Park in July 2018. (Barry Gerding - Black Press Media)

Staff with the District of Peachland are keeping watch and are at the ready as lake levels continue to rise.

Director of community services Cheryl Wiebe said the lake has been above normal levels for a couple of weeks now and with the recent deluge of rain, the lake level has gotten even higher.

“So right now, we’re just trying to mobilize resources to protect our waterfront,” she said.

“There hasn’t been damage to the lakefront or properties, at least not that we’re aware of right now.”

Currently, water is at around 3.42 meters high. Wiebe said in 2017, they didn’t see much damage to the lakefront until the water was approximately four metres over full capacity, which means staff don’t expect serious damage right now.

“There were small foreshore impacts and erosion, and so that’s the issue that we’re dealing with right now.”

The past week’s heavy rains caused localized flooding in Vernon’s Polson Park and pushed Kalamalka Lake to near full capacity in Coldstream.

Okanagan Lake is now 25 centimetres above full pool and may reach 30 centimetres above full pool level, depending on how much rain falls in the coming days.

READ: Peachland to celebrate Canada Day with virtual races, pop-up mini concerts

READ: Okanagan Lake level surpasses full pool


Twila Amato
Video journalist, Black Press Okanagan
Follow me on

Twila Amato

About the Author: Twila Amato

Twila was a radio reporter based in northern Vancouver Island. She won the Jack Webster Student Journalism Award while at BCIT and received a degree in ancient and modern Greek history from McGill University.
Read more