The closure of Highway 5A because of flooding at Stump Lake could last well beyond this week, according to the Thompson Nicola Regional District.

TNRD emergency program coordinator Kevin Skrepnek says the closure south of Kamloops could last some time, and he thinks closing the highway was the right move.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a matter of weeks, not days. But obviously that will be up to the Ministry of Transportation, and they’re going to be factoring in public safety. I was out there for most of the day yesterday at Stump Lake, and definitely based on that water levels I think it was the right decision in terms of public safety. It was just simply for too high,” he tells NL News.

“Also we were starting to see lots of debris getting into that area where the road was flooded. For folks out there, they’ll be well familiar, Stump Lake sees a lot of wave action from a lot of wind in that area. So a lot of junk was also starting to blow onto the highway. Logs, things like that.”

Highway 5A was closed early Monday afternoon because of Stump Lake spilling its bank, with no estimated day that it could reopen. Another update is expected on Friday afternoon.

There are road blocks set up at both ends of the highway, in Knutsford and Merritt, allowing only local traffic through. Drivers are being asked to use the Coquihalla instead between Kamloops and Merritt.

Skrepnek says some outbuildings and likely some basements on nearby properties have been flooded. But he doesn’t anticipate any evacuation alerts or orders to be necessary at this point.