Homeowners work to free a debris jam on Shuttleworth Creek in Okanagan Falls.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

PENTICTON - Emergency response personnel at the regional district must feel a lot like an unsuccessful Hans Brinker these days, as it doesn’t seem to matter how many times they stick their fingers in the dike to stop a leak, another seems to break out somewhere else.

The latest “leak" in the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen broke out in Okanagan Falls this morning when Shuttleworth Creek burst its southern bank opposite Peach Cliff Modular Home Park.

Fifty-four residences have been evacuated from the community with 4th Avenue quickly becoming almost unrecognizable as a river now runs through it.

On 4th Avenue in Okanagan Falls, where A River Runs Through It this afternoon, May 10, 2018.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

Residents have answered the call in Okanagan Falls, as sandbagging efforts continue through today’s rain and humidity.

Further upstream from 4th Avenue where the breach occurred, two pieces of heavy equipment are working to create a berm to put the creek back in its place.

“They’re afraid if they fix that, it’ll break through somewhere else,” said a sandbagger who wished not to be named. He pointed to a couple of properties on 4th Avenue.

“They had a garage full of motorcycles and spent the whole morning getting them out of there. That place is probably ruined, it’s a mobile home and water has been rushing underneath it all day,” he said, pointing out a home with a slight lean, water spilling out of its foundation.

“That guy just bought that place last year. Now he’s got a moat,” he said.

Don't move that boat just yet, it may come in handy - floodwaters rage across 4th Avenue in Okanagan Falls, May 10, 2018.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

On the other side of the bank, upstream at Peach Cliff Estates Mobile Home Park, residents, mostly retirees, are working to sandbag their side of the bank, already beefed up with a berm to protect the homes in the park.

Several seniors have been working to break apart a pile of debris jamming the midstream of the river.

No one wants to give names for this story.

“Liability issues,” says one man. “I’m not supposed to be here.”

Nonetheless, he’s been prying at the mass of branches and logs all day, making slow headway.

Others are packing sandbags for several hundred metres as water can be seen oozing underneath the berm into a neighbouring yard.

Residents at Peach Cliff Estates Mobile Home Park placing sandbags on the banks of Shuttleworth Creek.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

What is particularly ironic about most of this year’s flooding in the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys, (to this point, at least) is most of it is occurring on creeks and streams that seemed to be nothing more than marks on a map, figments of a cartographer's imagination for most of the year.

Who knew Park Rill Creek flowed alongside Sportsmens Bowl Road? Who knew, before this year, where Kearns Creek flowed?

A lot more of us know now.

Shuttleworth Creek occupies a similar place in people’s imaginations most of the year, when it is little more than a ditch.

But not this year.

Sandbaggers answering the call to action in Okanagan Falls.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

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