Flood warning downgraded to a High Streamflow Advisory for the Nicola region; City remains prepared

MERRITT – The Flood Warning has been downgraded to a High Streamflow Advisory in the Nicola area, but the City of Merritt is staying prepared.

With rain in the forecast, the City has activated it’s Emergency Operations Centre at level 1, the lowest possible, but Chief Administrative Officer, Sean Smith said the move is purely precautionary.

“We are going and looking at our own infrastructure, looking at the dike system,” said Smith. “If things were to get up to a certain height, what further protections would we need to put in place just to make sure we are ready as possible? That’s really the process now, and then making sure we are learning and then sharing that data among everybody who would need to use it.”

Smith noted that flows are not expected to exceed 100 cubic-metres-per-second, more than three time less than the 300-plus witnessed in the November 2021 flood.

In addition to crews manning the low level EOC, sandbags will be made available to residents in the Civic Centre parking lot.