Joe Oranchuk鈥檚 painted turtle ponds are four inches higher than normal, a stream now runs through his property, his fields which housed goats, chickens and bees have turned to swamps and his basement flooded.

He has lived at his Spiers Road property since 1984 and he鈥檚 never experienced anything like it.

鈥淚t started from Spiers Road and the city wasn鈥檛 looking out for us at all. It comes through the road, and they just let it go over the road, it flooded this whole area,鈥� he said.

鈥淚 had animals out there that are flooded, and no one鈥檚 come out to look at them.鈥�

Last year, Oranchuk鈥檚 property flooded but not to this extent, he said. He is calling on the city to take a look at the damage because he said they should have done some ditch maintenance.

The city, however, has a differing view. A culvert was blocked on private property, said city communications officer Tom Wilson.

鈥淎 city crew on the scene to protect Speirs Road (city property) with an excavator, was working blindly under the water to unblock the culvert and save that section of Spiers Road from washing out,鈥� said Wilson. 鈥� There was no time or realistic ability to release the water slowly through the culvert 鈥� it needed to be unblocked to save Spiers Road from eventually failing.鈥�

Darin Thompson, with the city鈥檚 roadways construction department, said there has been flooding where it鈥檚 never seen before, including Kirschner Mountain, Summit Drive and Union Drive, which had water coming out of the asphalt.

It鈥檚 also up to the private property owners to maintain their private ditches and culverts, said Thompson. City culverts have been checked and are flowing and a city staffer had checked the area Thursday morning, he said.

West 琉璃神社 is experiencing similar water issues. To get ahead of flooding city staff have begun the installation of a bladder dam on the west side of Gellatly Road, extending from the Cove Lakeside Resort to the bridge over Powers.

The bladder dam is a temporary installation but will be in place until threat of creek flooding has passed. It is just one of several flood-prevention measures the City has put in place on Gellatly Road which flooded during the 2017 freshet. Rotary Trails Park remains closed and is a staging area for creek flood response equipment.

To report a typo, email: edit@kelownacapnews.com.

carli.berry@kelownacapnews.com
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