After more than a year, people in a dozen properties dotted along the Nicola River near Spences Bridge are finally on their way home.

The Thompson Nicola Regional District has been able to lift its evacuation order for the area as of noon on Thursday.

TNRD spokesperson Colton Davies says these folks were out for over a year — not because of the threat of more flooding.

“The issue being the closure of Highway 8 and also a lack of power to those properties,” said Davies.  “As we know, very recently, Highway 8 has fully reopened with temporary repairs, which allowed access fully to these properties.”

It’s not clear where the occupants of the 12 homes have been living since the initial evacuation order was issued on November 20th of last year — all in the wake of the atmospheric river.

This represents the end of the evacuation orders in the Regional District following last year’s devastating flooding.

“Personally, it was relieving for me to see this order being moved to an ‘all clear,’ knowing what so many residents went through last Fall,” said Davies.