With spring melt underway, the City of Kamloops is trying to stay ahead of any flooding concerns.

The typical issues are anywhere from flooding on the roads due to blocked catch basins, to more widespread flooding from surging river systems.

Utility Services Manager Greg Wightman says the melt on city streets this year has been close to perfect.

“We had those warm temperatures over the course of last week, but we are still seeing the overnight temperatures dipping down around zero,” he said. “So we were able to have things freeze up again overnight, and then again a nice slow melt throughout the day.”

” Things went fairly well for the snow melt in the city here.”

He says crews worked through the winter keeping the catch basins clear to ensure they are prepared for when the snow does melt.

On that note, staff aren’t expecting there to be any major flooding risks this season, given the near normal snowpacks this past winter.

“One of the things we did this year as well is we put out a catch basin locator tool on our city website and encouraged residents to try and help us out as best they can to inspect their own properties,” Wightman added.

“Folks were out clearing those catch basins using that tool to find where they were and certainly with the help of the community, I think, it really resulted in a good melt of the snow on the streets here.”

Wightman adds staff are also not expecting there to be any impacts to the city water supply because of increased turbidity in the river during the spring melt.