With the Bonaparte River flowing at historic levels, Cache Creek remains on flood watch

CACHE CREEK, B.C. — The cleanup around Cache Creek continues, after the stream of the same name spilled its banks last week.

This week, emergency operations personnel in the village have turned their attention to the Bonaparte River, as it continues to rise.

“We’re watching the river levels,” Wendy Coomber, Cache Creek Emergency Operations Centre Information Officer tells CFJC Today. “We don’t have any damage yet, but we’re expecting the river to over-top its banks any time now.”

Coomber says the BC River Forecast Centre has told EOC staff that a significant portion of the snow that feeds into the Bonaparte watershed has already come down. She expects the river level to fluctuate over the next several days.

“The River Forecast Centre charts show it going up moderately more, and then dropping, and then coming back up again,” Coomber explains. “It’s probably going to go on for at least another week. We thought that in 2020, and it went on for two-and-a-half months, but we’re really hoping that’s not the case this year.”

With the Bonaparte River flowing at 100-year flood levels, close to 300 residents have been forced from their homes. With some hot weather on the way, the village is keeping a close on on the river, and working to protect those 128 properties.

“We’ve had forestry crews in doing sandbagging over the last several days,” Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta says. “They sandbagged on this side of Bonaparte River, on Collins Road there are a number of houses there that are threatened.”

Ranta doesn’t believe any further evacuations will be necessary, as all of the properties in close proximity to the Bonaparte River have been notified. However, residents and travellers will likely experience delays as crews work to repair the extensive damage to the highway.

“I went from here to the post office yesterday, which is usually a five-minute trip,” Ranta says. “It took over an hour to get to the post office and back, because of the single-lane traffic and the pilot car and that sort of stuff.”

While the damage caused by Cache Creek is still being evaluated, residents and city officials remain vigilant and hopeful that the Bonaparte River won’t cause damage to the homes in its path.

“We are hoping that the river won’t be nearly as devastating as the creek has been,” Coomber says. “But it’s early days.”