Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian says the risk of a freshet is very real.

The city had applied for a grant to do flood mitigating work at Riverside Park, but it was denied.

Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, Christian says we will continue to do seasonal protective activities in the park. He says it takes all the rails off of the pier and use the walkway as a base for a dyke.

“We will start pretty much at the back end of the Sandman Centre and work our way all the way down to the Overlanders Bridge. That way we protect both the park and the lift stations and the elements that are critical to our infrastructure located within the park.”

Christian says the timing between the peak of the North Thompson River and the South Thompson River often can add or subtract from the risk in the city but that remains to be seen when those will occur.

“We need to protect those areas and that will be a bit more difficult now as we try to do that within the restrictions of the COVID-19 situation and the physical distancing requirements for workers that are going to be deployed to do that kind of protective work.”

Christian says Riverside is one of the more vulnerable areas as is an area around Schubert Drive and the Henry Grube Centre. He says it will physical distancing guidelines will create some new challenges, but the Mayor says he is proud of the way that Kamloopsians have handled the situation so far.

“When we do have exceedances they’re not many. On the weekend, I think our bylaw services dealt with I think a total of 18 situations over the Easter long weekend which is really minuscule compared to the 100,000 people that are complying with unusual orders and unusual circumstances.”

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