The River Valley Community Church was host to another Boundary Flood Recovery update meeting on Tuesday, April 30.
Regional District of Kootenay Boundary (RDKB) Interim Manager of Emergency Programs Mark Stephens says river levels are going up and down, but generally starting to come down again:
“It’s looking good for us, for the rivers, one thing I want to say is that although we have…. we’re out of the woods in term of receiving new snow, and these values look good for us, we want to make sure that we are still monitoring them as we are in the Emergency Program because we can get a large amount of rain over a short period of time, we can still get into these situations where we get a lot of increased river level.”
The current snow-pack levels show the snow/water equivalent at 400 millimetres, down from 875 this time last year.
Cavan Gates with the BFR Team explains that the National Disaster Mitigation Program grant, set to protect the downtown core, was denied:
“We are looking right now at different funding sources for the same work. It’s still work that is supported by the resolution of city council so they’ve said ‘yes please pursue alternate funding for that work’, so it’s something that we’re actively pursuing. Although we have not identified specifically where that money might come from we have at least two options that we’re looking at.”
He adds they’re looking to hear back regarding the Disaster Mitigation and Adaptation Fund by the end of this month, worth $49.9-million. Gates said later that evening that a plan B is being discussed by council, should the DMAF also be denied, but nothing is yet settled upon.
Gates says the flood plain mapping model is in it’s final draft form:
“So the implication of having this work done is now we can, the City that is, can work on updating the flood plain bylaw as well as the flood levels, so if you’re in the flood plain and you’re building…. the flood construction level…. they’re working on updating it based on this information so that there’s a more accurate height to build to.”
The Flood Response Plan is also said to be in it’s final review stages, and will be updated with details from this year’s freshet.
Mennonite Disaster Service Canada is in Grand Forks and the team says to contact your case manager if you’re interested in their help rebuilding. The Canadian Red Cross says they will remain active in Grand Forks until at least June, adding that about a month ago there were approximately 170 applicants for the Support to Small Businesses Program.
To read about the last BFR update meeting click here.
To view the presentation slides from this week’s meeting click here.