The Regional District of East Kootenay’s (RDEK) emergency program personnel continue to closely monitor the run off situation around the region.

“We have had a 26 person Forestry Unit Crew on site today filling sandbags that both RDEK and City of Cranbrook residents are able to come down and pick up. We’ve provided sandbags to both the St. Mary’s Band and Fort Steele Heritage Town and are just in the process of getting a small crew out to Wardner to help fill some bags in that community,” said RDEK Information Officer Loree Duczek. “Anyone heading to the gravel pit on Cobham Avenue should be prepared to load the sandbags into their vehicle as we do not have the resources to assist in this regard.”

With strong demand, if the filled bags all get taken, there will still be sand available for people to self-fill bags if they wish.

The weather forecast is calling for drier conditions through tomorrow with another storm system expected to move into the East Kootenay on Saturday night, bringing with it between 5-10mm of rain across much of the region. The Fernie area could see 20+mm of rain by Sunday morning.

“We will continue to monitor conditions through the weekend with the forecasted rainfall; however, we are encouraged that things have stabilized somewhat over the past 24 hours,” adds Duczek.

Residents in several municipalities and rural areas of the RDEK have been dealing with localized pooling of water and run off over the past two days. The RDEK has opened its Emergency Operations to help provide support and allocate resources around the region.

Additional updates will be provided to the local media, on the RDEK Facebook page and to RDEK email groups through the weekend as conditions warrant.

RDEK

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