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Flooding has us in over our heads

Jessica Schwitek takes a look at the rising waters.

If you don’t know how to swim, you might want to learn soon.

It seems as though Mother Nature has decided that we all looked a little too dry, and that flooding the province was a fitting solution.

Another flood watch has been issued for the Kicking Horse River (Monday June 25), and you can clearly see the waves splashing the grass on Gould’s Island.

Residents along the Fraser Valley have been evacuated, and the rising Shuswap and Thompson rivers have people in the Thompson Okanagan region worried.

The hardest hit so far has been Sicamous, who has seen damaged homes and dozens of cars swept away after flash floods tore through the town. So far, 350 people have been evacuated from their homes.

A mudslide west of Revelstoke had highway crews working overtime trying to get the Trans Canada back open.

At Goose Creek, near Castlegar, the floods turned fatal on June 23 as a 72-year-old man was swept away by rising creek water.

The man was walking across the creek on a private bridge, when the entire bridge was washed away.

It makes Golden’s situation look relatively mild. But I must say, this town has seen its share of natural disasters.

Avalanches and rockslides have had the highways closed on a semi-regular basis this year.

And I’ve been told that the most irritating natural phenomenon is still to come, as the mosquitos will start terrorizing Golden in the next few weeks.

It is important to be as prepared as possible — have a proper emergency and evacuation plan, fill sand bags. Buy bug spray.

But in the end, we are all slaves to Mother Nature. So keep a floaty close by and watch the show.