Saturday flooding in Cache Creek prompts local declaration of emergency

CACHE CREEK — Cache Creek- the namesake for the village west of Kamloops overflowed its banks Saturday night, directing the creek through portions of the village.

At around 7:00 on saturday night, a log had jammed in one of the culverts underneath Quartz road in Cache Creek. High streamflow had been pulling debris from the riverbank into the creek. The jam, caused water blockage. Leading to the creek overflowing its banks.

The creek flowed through the village until around midnight on saturday, with minor overflows throughout the night.

The high streamflow warning, mixed with the intense heat had been of particular concern to the Cache Creek fire department, who seeing the impending flood conditions laid down sandbags and barricades two days prior to the flood.

Cache Creek the body of water is a small creek that feeds into the Bonaparte River. Cache Creek the village is built along the creek on an incline. When the banks overflowed the water ran down the hill, through the village, over the highway and into the Bonaparte river. Depositing river silt and mud across the roads, parking lots, sidewalks and parks.

Courtesy: Google maps
*This map is an approximation of affected areas, as described to CFJC.

This is not the first time that Cache Creek has flooded in this exact spot. Mayor John Ranta has been working with local village officials, as well as the provincial government to find a solution for the re-occurring problem.

At 3:30 on Sunday a local emergency was declared for the town of Cache Creek. Mayor Ranta explains that there is a singular property on the outskirts of the village that is in danger of the high streamflow, and that declaring a local emergency allowed him to call for that property to be evacuated. Since the emergency declaration Ranta claims the water levels have gone down, and he feels optimistic.

Ranta stresses that the public should avoid the bank of the creek while the danger is still present, as the ground may not hold.

Town officials have set out to measure levels of snow in the surrounding mountains to get a better diagnosis of the problem. The flood watch remains in effect for the South Thompson.