Clean-up continues in Savona after weekend flood

Clean-up continues in a city 45 kilometres west of Kamloops after a flash flood Sunday night.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD) says no injuries were reported in Savona, but Information Officer Amanda Ellison says the impact on 20 homes was fairly significant.

“What happened with the flash flood is it took debris down off the hillside and went through the community in multiple spots,” she said.

She says the small community of 500 people dealt with traffic disruptions and access issues.

“Highway 1 goes through the main centre of town, so when the highway was closed Sunday evening, there was quite an impact on traffic and access to the community,” Ellison said. “There are also some frontage roads and small residential roads that had debris on them.”

Ellison says a few households required temporary relocation due to the flood.

“We had a few households that saw a temporary relocation through the emergency social services,” she said. “They were out of their homes for a couple of days and probably well underway in terms of trying to get everything cleaned up and returned home.”

Ellison says homeowners are working through their insurance policies and cleaning to the best of their abilities.

“They have to work with their individual insurance policies on what sources may be covered in terms of debris management,” she said.

She says the next step for the district is trying to find a central solution for debris management.

“We have an eco depot out in that area that folks can bring waste to,” she said.

Ellison tells CityNews that this incident is “not as rare as we’d want it to be.” She says there was a heavy amount of rainfall in the short period of time that did not sit right on the hillside.

“[It’s] not something that we expected, and I guess we hope it’s more rare than it seems to be lately,” she said.

She says the TNRD website has resources on preparing for disasters and encourages all residents to look at that information and make sure they are as prepared as possible for unusual weather events.

Ellison says residents can call the TNRD Emergency Operations Centre at 250-377-7188 if their properties have been impacted or they need support.

—With files from Catherine Garret.