Ron Richert, the Director of Emergency Services in Quesnel, says a flood assessment specialist has come down from Williams Lake.
Here, he describes what they will be doing.
“They’re going to be working with us today just looking at different areas on the Quesnel River, the low lying areas, the areas that are potentially at risk for flooding, building assessment, and what we need to do to protect those buildings should the rising water reach those levels.”
Richert says it’s just a matter of what they would deploy first, what equipment would be brought in from Emergency Management BC, and where to deploy the equipment.
He says the Quesnel River is expected to rise next week.
“The later part of next week. It’s on a bit of an incline constantly starting this weekend. Then rising and by next Thursday-Friday is kind of the point they’re expecting it to peak.”
Richert says the BC River Forecast Centre is expecting the Quesnel River to get to levels that we haven’t had in recent years.
As usual though, Richert says it really depends on the weather when it comes to how high the water levels get, adding that a long stretch of hot weather or a lot of rain would have the most impact.
He says everything is just precautionary at this point.
“The City has activated their Emergency Operations Centre to a level 1. We’ve been in contact with Emergency Management BC (EMBC) in regards to flood protection equipment should we need to deploy that, and we’re having weekly coordination calls with EMBC and the River Forecast specialists to keep us up to date with the rising waters.
A Flood Watch has been issued for the Quesnel River.