It looks like we’ve dodged a bullet as far as flooding goes but don’t plan on getting back on the river anytime soon.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, the City of Kamloops’ Utility Services Manager Greg Wightman, said we’ve avoided the worst case scenario.

“That’s certainly the way things are starting to trend right now,” he said. “We’ve been at this heightened level of concern since the May long weekend, which has just been an exhausting effort on behalf of staff and really the public as well.”

“I know there’s been a heightened sense of anxiety which is what we’ve been encouraging but we’re finally at the point that even with continued unstable weather, it’s looking like the risk of severe flooding because of freshet starting to minimize.”

The rivers will still remain fairly high for the foreseeable future, Wightman said, in part due to the unstable weather in recent weeks.

“We continue to get these thunderstorms like we had on Sunday and a little bit of rain last night so the rivers just aren’t dropping they way that we’re used to seeing in the past once we’ve had that peak from freshet,” he added.

As far as what it might take for things to take a turn for the worse, Wightman says anything can happen but things appear to be in our favour.

“With the rivers being as high as they are there’s still that potential,” he said. “What it will take is likely a couple days of really significant rainfall, we’re talking 30 plus millimetres a day for a couple days at this point.

“Nothing like that is forecast right now, again the forecast is changing almost daily it seems. There’s a lot of uncertainty in the forecast right now but this point it’s looking like that risk of severe flooding that we’ve been concerned about all year is starting to minimize which is really encouraging.”

Still, it is bad news for boaters though boat launches will remain closed for the time being.

“Unfortunately, I know people are looking for those opportunities to get out and recreate and enjoy the waterways but again the water levels are just so high this time of year,” Wightman noted.

“I mean we’re into July already and we still have boat launches closed which is almost unheard of but we’re just not seeing that drop of the river and there’s nothing forecasted for it to drop in the next little while here.”

City staff will continue to monitor things very closely with Wightman still asking people to be vigilant and to report any issues you may see.

The City’s Civic Operations Line at 250-828-3461 is monitored 24/7.