Prisoners join flood fight in the South Okanagan

It reached nearly 20 degrees Celsius in Oliver Monday and that means more water — the last thing the community wants to hear.

“We know that we’re going to have more water because we know the spring freshet is coming. We have a week of warm weather coming this week with predicted rain on Saturday,” Karla Kozakevich, Chair of Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen said.

It’s predicted to reach 25 Celsius by Thursday with rain in the forecast for the weekend.

Regional Director Terry Schafer said the pumps and sandbags are doing their job, but admits the forecast is worrisome.

“With 151 per cent snowpack and then a couple of dumps on top of that, all it’s going to take is a few more days of warm weather like this or a rain event to make things — what I like to call – biblical,” Schafer said.

There is some good news. Only 12 properties – mostly in the Sportmens Bowl area north of Oliver — remain on evacuation order. That means about half of the people who were ordered from their homes on the weekend have been allowed to return.

And everybody is getting in on the flood effort. Prisoners at the Okanagan Correctional Centre, just outside of Oliver are also making an effort to keep Oliver dry.

The mayor of Oliver said the prisoners have been filing thousands of sandbags.

“They’ve had some of their inmates filling sandbags for the Regional District and I know the Regional District has put out a call for as many sandbags as they can fill, so I’m sure they’re going to be doing lots,”  mayor Ron Hovanes said.

So far, roughly 100,000 sandbags have been stacked along the creeks of the Oliver area. Another 240,000 have been ordered.