More detailed flood damage assessments in the West Chilcotin will be completed by the Cariboo Regional District (CRD) starting Friday (July 12).
This follows Wednesday’s flyover which Emergency Operations Centre public information officer Emily Epp said was more of a general assessment.
“We had water stewardship and the Ministry of Agriculture on that flight, so we were stopping and getting a general sense of things and stopping at roads and culverts, and we did stop and talk to some property owners but the waters were still receding,” she said.
“So they receded a bit more and now we’ll be able to do more detailed damage assessments. So our staff will be stopping on people’s properties observing, asking a lot more detailed questions, and coming back with a detailed assessment for all the properties impacted.”
Epp said the assessments that are expected to be completed over the next three days will help them to understand the impacts as well as forming the basis for their recovery planning and the province’s recovery planning to support residents as they return back to regular life.
It is believed that about a dozen or fewer residents are still without road access.
“We really would like to caution people again traveling in the area if they don’t live there or they don’t need to be there, there is a lot of road closures so it is a bit confusing to travel through there,” Epp said.
“Also the rivers and streams, the banks may be unstable and the fast-flowing water can be dangerous so we’re asking people to just avoid traveling in those areas at this time just for their safety.”
The River Forecast Centre is maintaining a flood warning for the Chilcotin River as well as a high streamflow advisory for the Chilko River near Redstone.
It said Friday while there is likelihood that the rivers may rise slightly on the weekend significant rises are not expected according to the current modeling.