Okanagan residents wait and prepare for lake to rise

Residents in the small, waterfront community of Twin Lakes near Penticton, B.C. are doing all they can to protect their homes as emergency officials predict significant flooding for the area.

"It's a great day, beautifulplace to be if you didn't know a disaster was happening," said residentCraig Hunter.

• Washed out roads and watery basements: Okanagan residents brace for more floods

Hunterhasspent the lastfive weeks building a wall of sandbags to protect theplace he's called home for 30 years, but his barrier, about one-and-a-half metres high, may not be enough.

Predictions are that the water levels in LowerNipitLake could rise another two metres

It's currently rising by 15 centimetres per day.

Late Thursday afternoon,the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen issued an evacuation alert for 64 properties, meaning residents need to be prepared to leave on a moment's notice.

'Significantly worse'

The area experienced significant floodinglast year, and officials say this year it's expected to be "significantly worse."

The higher-than-normal snowpackwill continue to melt as warmer temperatures hit next week, causing lake levels to rise quickly.

Emergency officials spent the day dropping off truckloads of sandbags, and crews surveyed the area to see how they can best hold the water back.

Twin Lakes are kettle lakes, which means there is no natural outflow likethere arefor creeks or rivers.

Last year, officials were able to pump the water out to Park Rille Creek. However, that's not an option this year because thecreekis already floodingand has washed out the two-lane Sportmens Bowl Road.

"Knowing it's coming and knowing there isn't much you can do about it, and knowing that there isn't much that emergency services can do about itbecause everybodyis flooding,it's a challenge to come to terms with it," said Hunter.

"Andthe emotional side is, holy crap man, what are we going to do?"

On the other side of the lake, the Brown family was busy Friday building a wall ofsandbags to keep water from ruining their pump house.

"If the water comes up another foot, we'll have to shut this off, which means we won't have any water," said Alex Brown.