Penticton, BC Property Damaged After Flash Flood | Globalnews.ca

More than 12mm of rain fell in just 45 minutes on Monday, causing flash flooding across Penticton, BC

The Emergency Operations Center received 86 reports of flood-damaged properties throughout the community.

“Usually the rain falls over a longer period of time and our infrastructure can handle that and deal with rain flow events. But once it all happens at once, you get blockades and debris and all that kind of stuff, so it’s pretty unique,” said Emergency Operations Center director Anthony Haddad.

Haddad said the damage is widespread throughout the community, affecting a variety of businesses and family homes.

“Some larger complexes in terms of basement flooding, lower-level parking lot flooding, so it’s a variety of different properties spread throughout the community,” Haddad said.

The city declared a local state of emergency Monday to allow emergency crews access to private property.

“We had about 50 employees in the field dealing with problem responses made up of our fire department, building engineering staff and public works staff,” Haddad said.

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“We also had our eight rapid response teams out in the field and they were visiting individual properties that called in with concerns about yesterday’s flooding.”

Crews returned to all 86 properties and stormwater infrastructure Tuesday to assess damage and cleanup. The severity of all damage is unknown at this time.

“Our public infrastructure teams ensure that stormwater infrastructure is clear of debris that may have entered the system during the event and ensure that those pipes and underground infrastructure [are] ready for any future event,” added Haddad.

More severe weather is forecast for Wednesday and Thursday and the Emergency Operations Center said they will monitor weather patterns for the next few days.

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