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Penticton  

Neighbourhood cleans up after flood

A Penticton neighbourhood was in clean up mode Thursday, after driveways, backyards, garages and basements were flooded on Wednesday afternoon.

The flooding in the south end of the city started around 4 p.m. after a flash storm dumped heavy rain in a short amount of time.

"It looked like a river coming down the street, with the water rising," said Irene Dias, who lives on hard hit Wilson Street. "It was going on to the lawns, down driveways and into people's garages and basements. Both my yards were flooded and my plants floated away."

Neighbours went to work quickly pumping the water out of garages and bailing out basements with buckets.

City crews who showed up soon after the deluge began, closed the street and joined in the effort.

Simone Blais, the city's communications officer, said the storm water system along WIlson was overwhelmed by the volume of rain, and when that happens it has nowhere else to go, but down the street.

Once crews went to work, the water receded quickly. There were no injuries or homes threatened, it was just a lot of water seepage, said Blais.

Residents said they had experienced flooding before, but nothing like this.

"It was huge," said Dan Lee, as he continued pumping water from a yard on Thursday. The whole intersection was flooded, as buckets and buckets of rain came down."

Paul Thiem said his garage had a foot, to a foot and a half of water in it. He and other family members shut the door between the house and the garage, so the water did not get in.  

"We have had flooding before. This is definitely the worst," he said.

Dias said that end of town could definitely use a drainage upgrade, as she hung blankets she used to stop the flooding in her garage, on trees in the yard.

The city's operations department reviews infrastructure on a regular basis, but that has budget implications, said Blais.

"It would have to be mapped out as part of a bigger picture, but we are certainly aware of the issue," she said. "Typically Penticton doesn't have a lot of rainfall, so when it does rain like that it can overwhelm the system.

City crews stayed on site for awhile last night and will be driving around today to check."



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