B.C. flooding forces evacuation of mobile home park, other properties

MERRITT, B.C. – Water levels continue to rise in British Columbia's Interior, chasing more residents from their homes.

The Thompson-Nicola Regional District issued evacuation orders for 54 properties northwest of Merritt on Sunday, including the entire Lower Nicola Mobile Home Park.

Agnese Saat with the emergency operations centre says a total of 69 properties are under evacuation across the regional district, and residents of several other homes have been warned they may need to leave at a moment's notice.

Saat says high water has breached the banks of nearby waterways, and residences in the area are at risk of flooding — if they haven't flooded already.

Similar conditions persist in other areas of the province, including Peachland, south of Kelowna, where a local state of emergency was declared Sunday as officials deal with a landslide and water flowing across Highway 97.

The River Forecast Centre has cautioned that warming temperatures have melted snow across the province, creating high streamflows in many waterways.

Speaking in Kamloops on Saturday, Premier John Horgan acknowledged that the rising waters are causing problems for many across B.C., because the snow is melting faster than rivers are able to absorb it.

But Saat said there's hope the situation near Merritt will improve in the next few days.

She said the community came together Sunday to create sandbag barriers around the mobile home park.

"Communities band together at times like this," Saat said.