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Six homes ordered to evacuate early Tuesday morning in Grand Forks due to flooding

Two of the six were put on evacuation alert Monday evening
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A berm reportedly damaged in the 2018 flood and not since repaired is letting water from the Kettle River to flow northeast across Johnson Flats in Grand Forks. (Jensen Edwards/Grand Forks Gazette)

Fifteen people from six homes in the Johnson Flats neighbourhood of Grand Forks were ordered to evacuate at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) said May 19.

Of the six properties on Beatrice Road, two were put on evacuation alert late Monday. The other four did not receive such a warning, said Mark Stephens, the RDKB’s emergency operations manager.

The RDKB said that all affected residents are safe and two households chose to remain in their homes.

After initial inspection, emergency crews suspect that the river breached a non-permitted berm built on one of the affected properties. RDKB communications officer Frances Maika said that two buildings may have also seen some water damage.

On Monday afternoon the RDKB issued an evacuation alert for 7 properties on Manly Meadows Road in rural Grand Forks, fearing that the road could be cut off by high water. Two more properties on the same road were issued an evacuation alert later on Monday as well.

A forecast graph for the Kettle River at Ferry, Wash., just south of Midway, suggests that the Kettle River may have now reached its peak, though water levels on that graph stay at or near their current height through Wednesday and Thursday.

A Granby River forecast graph pulled at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday suggests that river may peak just high of two-year return levels between May 21 and May 23.

In a release Tuesday morning, the RDKB said that water levels in the West Kettle, Kettle and Granby rivers are not forecast to surpass a two to five-year return level.

Read more: RDKB issues evacuation alerts for 7 properties on Manly Meadows Road in Grand Forks

Read more: Sandbags and sand available for Boundary residents as river levels rise

More to come.


@jensenedw
Jensen.edwards@grandforksgazette.ca

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