Photo: Alanna Kelly

Officials are firmly stating the William R. Bennet Bridge is secure enough to handle the rising lake levels and strong winds.

Okanagan Lake is going to continue to be high for several weeks, well into the summer months.

“The operators of the bridge have made some adjustments to the tension in the cables,” said Brian Symonds of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations in Penticton.

“It was designed with the intention to be able to respond to changing lake levels particularly when it goes outside the more normal range so my understanding is they have been making those adjustments as the lake level is going up,” he said.

Five to 10 mm of rainfall is expected this evening into tomorrow morning.

Central Okanagan Emergency Operations said winds will reach 40 to 60 kilometres per hour and will test flood protection measures.

A cold system will be coming through but followed by rising river levels at the end of the week and extending into next week.

“Warmer temperatures later in the week will speed up the volume of snow melting at the higher elevation watersheds, further boosting creek flows and area lakes to rise,” said the Central Okanagan Emergency Operations.

A risk of falling trees within saturated ground conditions near lakes and creeks is currently high.

“We are at the mercy of the weather now,” said Symonds.

Water levels are reaching such high heights that the hydro panel at two Shelter Bay Marina docks had to be turned off. The docks impacted are dock A and dock AA.

Over 1.7 million sandbags have been shipped, 13 km of gabion has been staged and 14.5 km of dam products.