Heavy rain wreaks havoc in Eastside Road area south of Penticton

PENTICTON – Heavy rain yesterday afternoon has triggered a mudslide and flooding in the Eastside Road area between Penticton and Okanagan Falls.

Residents are doing damage control and cleanup this morning, March 23.

Dennis Knoll and Pat Schofield, who live on Arthur Place, worked to free a plugged culvert that was overwhelmed by the heavy rain yesterday.

“I’ve lived here for 21 years and have never seen anything like this,” Knoll said, as water flowed across the intersection of Arthur Place and Eastside Road, located about six kilometres south of Penticton.

Knoll said the watercourse that runs into his property is normally nothing more than a trickle, but last night’s rain caused it to overflow a culvert and flood his front lawn prior to coursing down a driveway shared by four other properties.

Schofield was busy this morning trying to keep the culvert open.

“It’s a 30-inch culvert, but it probably needs to be 48-inches,” he said, adding the excessive flow brought a lot of debris down from the hillside that plugged it up.

He believes the rain also carried some snow melt with it, adding to the flow.

“And this is just the beginning of the melt,” he said.

Around two kilometres north of Arthur Place, a mud and water slide also covered Lakeside Road with debris last night. The road remained flooded, but was passable this morning.

Meanwhile, Johnny Aantjes with Lakeshore Waterworks says around 250 homes in the Heritage Hills area are without water following a water main break. 

Aantjes said a culvert on Sunnybrook Drive couldn't handle yesterday's rain, undermining and washing out the roadway. Service is expected to be restored this afternoon.

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