The BC River Forecast Centre has upgraded the Quesnel River to a flood warning.
Chris Keam is the Communications Manager for the Cariboo Regional District Emergency Operations Centre
“The Quesnel River right now is the one that the Weather Forecasters and River Forecasters are flagging as the one to watch so it is quite full already, and of course it feeds into the Fraser. With the Fraser River high as well it can sorta make the Quesnel rise as well, so it well may see levels beyond that of the historic peak which was in 1972”.
Keam added that they are expecting it to come up very quickly if not tomorrow, then certainly Thursday and through to Sunday. We see some real sharp rises in river levels as we get these extreme rainfall events.
With as much as 50 millimeters of rain is forecasted for the Fraser Headwaters and East Cariboo Keam says the CRD EOC will be keeping a close eye on rivers in the area.
“There is a very strong possibility that we may see flooding in a lot of different places in the CRD, but certainly North of Williams Lake, East of Williams Lake there’s a high potential of high water”.
The other thing the CRD EOC is thunderstorms and the potential they have with big bursts of rainfall in a short time so low lying areas, even if they’re not near a waterway it may see some flooding because the ground is so saturated at the moment from all the rain so far this Spring and Summer