After a weekend of flood warnings and new evacuation orders, the city of Merritt, BC, will resume temporary access to some of its homes affected by a natural disaster earlier this month.
Water levels in the Coldwater River have “stabilized,” the city said in a news update Monday, after two days of torrential downpours from the second of three atmospheric rivers forecast by Environment Canada.
Those in the ‘Phase 3’ area, south of Nicola Avenue, can now return between 10 am and 3 pm
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“The area remains under evacuation order and no resident should be in this area outside of designated hours,” he said. an update on the city’s website.
“This access will be re-evaluated daily as another atmospheric river is forecast to hit BC (sic).”
The third weather event is expected to occur between Tuesday and Wednesday and could bring between 50 and 100 millimeters of rain to communities in the southern part of the province.
The second of three storms soaked British Columbia over the weekend, wreaking further havoc in areas already devastated by the first weather event on November 14-15.
The City of Hope declared a local state of emergency, while several properties in Abbotsford and Merritt were placed under new evacuation orders and flood alerts.
Security concerns also led Merritt to suspend access to homes for evacuees south of Nicola Avenue.
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Levels in the Coldwater River peaked around 10 p.m. Sunday, flowing at 177 cubic meters per second, but those levels have since receded.
The Canadian Armed Forces had arrived in Merritt earlier that day to help shore up its flood defenses.
The City of Merritt and the Thompson-Nicola Regional District have now opened a ‘Resilience Center‘to support residents affected by the floods. It will operate between 9 am and 4 pm at the Merritt Civic Center.
BC Hydro has also dispatched teams to restore power to 137 homes in the city and 111 between Merritt and the nearby town of Brookmere, it said Monday.
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