5C's Que Pasa

Thank you for your prayers, concerns, hugs, phone calls, emails and comments.  It sure has been a most difficult 38 days since we put the girls to rest.  So much has transpired, so many emotions have been felt, so many tears shed and it isn’t over.

Yesterday we got to the RV Park about 2PM.  We were late as we had first gone to check out an RV Park near our home which a neighbor had relocated to.  First thing I saw was how low it was and I even saw one RV already half under water.  Turns out that last night that park as well as 600 homes and businesses were put on evacuation alert.  So we are happy with our decision to come to this 9 unit tiny and strange RV park.  We have 50 amps which we don’t need and good wifi.  Sadly the SPCA is across the street from us and we hear dogs barking night and day.  We so miss our girls but this is not a situation that we would want them to be in.  There is nowhere to walk them and we would have to drive somewhere.  In fact once my compression stockings come off Sunday I will have to drive somewhere to walk.  There is the constant sound of traffic as we are less than 1/2 block from a major intersection but at least we have a place.  The RV parks are full.

Once we parked, hooked up the electric and put out the slides we headed over to the Emergency Social Services to sign in.  They told us that we were better off staying in a hotel that would be paid for as they did not pay for RV’s.  You also got $45.00 each per day to eat in restaurants.  No gracias.  We will stay in our RV where eventually we will each have a desk and can keep our business operating.  I can’t imagine carting our two desktop computers and all of the camera equipment back and forth from the car every day.  So we are getting $45.00 per day for the two of us in groceries.  Vouchers are given out for a three day period so we have to check in again on Friday.  I think that $135.00 every three days for the two of us is more than sufficient.  However the vouchers can ‘t be used for alcohol 😯

After registering with ESS we went over to West Kelowna to pick up my car where Colin had left it Monday when he drove to to Freightliner to pick up the RV.  Back to the RV where we made the bed and set out some towels and organized the bathroom.   Next stop was to head out for dinner where we ate a lot of great Chinese food.  We were very hungry.  My head had been spinning all day, I seemed to not really be in the present.  I will admit to crying as we left our home.

Already I have discovered that I left all my recipes behind but the worst was my library items that are due to be returned.  I presume that a state of emergency will help with the situation.

A few readers mentioned that it was fortunate that we had insurance.  Sadly flooding is not covered under insurance.  There is a new fresh waster flood insurance that just came out late last year after we had already renewed our policy and by then we were headed to Mexico.  However because we are in an official state of emergency the government will pays 80% of claims from $1000.00 up to $300,000.00 which will help if the house if affected.  This does not cover patios or landscaping or bicycles, canoes, etc,  of which ours are mostly under water at this point.

Sadly the weather and the Universe have conspired to create what is being called the Perfect Storm.  It is forecast to be the worst storm in over 200 years in this area and they say that what we endured last week was a mere dress rehearsal for the next two days.  Because of the heat of the past two days which is creating spring run off and the fact that all vessels of water are at their maximum height and that all the ground is saturated we are in for some major flooding in the next 48 hours.  Sometime tomorrow we are in for a huge rain storm which will dump at least 20mm on the ground and up to 40mm in the hills each day.  If true than our lake will go up at least 5 inches.  The news this evening says that they are expecting up to 3000 evacuees in the coming days.  Tragically the hotels are full this weekend and next weekend.  They are asking people to come forth and volunteer to take the displaced into their homes.  They ( the powers that be ) say it will likely be a two week emergency situation.  I hope that the storm will somehow bypass us and that things will get better rather than worse.  We are so fortunate to have our home on wheels.  Of course we only have somewhere to stay until June 1st.  There is one RV park that we will check out tomorrow that has space till June 29th but they charge $65.00 per night plus tax.

Colin worked today while I went and had my hair done, the appointment made long ago.  Tana, my hairdresser has become a friend over the years and of course I cried off and on as I caught her up on my last  six months.   I then went and spent our $135.00 on groceries and only filled 3 bags.

So Colin is back and just dumped, first time since Vegas, a while back and hooked up our water.  We are good to weather the coming storm.

I am too tired to do photos.  Thanks for reading my long ramble.  I appreciate you all for always being there for me.

We loaded till 9PM and discovered a problem with the batteries.  Nothing could be done till daylight today as we were in a deep puddle of water and the batteries were arching.  Called Freightliner at 10PM and they were there and would have come this morning but our go to RV tech ( another good one here in Kelowna ) also answered his phone late last night.  He was here at 8AM this morning.  All is well.

The lake continues to rise and we are now 60% surrounded by water, maybe more.  We are safe ,all is well and we got to spend a final night in our home.  We’ve only been home just over three weeks and it is sad to say goodbye.  We have loaded our business into the RV as well as clothes and food as we have no idea how long we will be gone.  Possible several weeks.  Possibly a year if the water rises into our home.  The basement is empty but there is still a lot of water to come down the mountains.  Apparently Beaver Lake just above us is still frozen solid and we get a lot of run off from there in the spring.  More rain in the forecast, etc.

So we are about to lock the door  ( 11AM ) for who knows how long.  We have found the only RV site in all of Kelowna that can take us until June 1st.  Sadly it is a dump but it has full hook ups and wifi.  We have to register with Emergency Services once we drop off the RV, then go pick up my car in West Kelowna where Colin left it at Freightliner yesterday.  The RV just has everything thrown inside, it will take time to sort that out.  Once we are organized again I will post photos, etc.

Did you know that our street is called Lake Lane?  It certainly is a lake today.

This is Rae posting on Contessa’s behalf.

At 7AM this morning, the incident command chief came by and told Colin and Contessa that they were on evacuation alert and needed to be ready to leave in five minutes.

The lake by their home continues to rise and they now have rain and wind.  There is also water in the street in front of them. It is coming up from the drains and lower lying areas from other sites. The lake is halfway up their lawn and there are lots of big logs and crud on their patio.

Colin had the shop rush the RV repair and he is on his way to pick it up while Contessa packs.

Contessa will update once they find a place to settle tonight.  Even the main road from the RV park to the highway is under water now.

“One step at a time.”

Good luck, guys!

Our patio and a few feet of our lawn are underwater.  The lake is rising slower today but still rising, maybe 3 inches since 10AM.  We are slightly higher than either neighbor and so their water logged sites are also flowing into our yard.

Evacuations have begun here in our RV Park, a few condos and RV sites next to the golf course.  It appears that we may be getting flooded from both the lake and from in behind as the water finds the lowest path.  Because of that we moved even more boxes from under the house as we could be flooded from both directions.  Fortunately we took three golf cart loads of garbage out today which cleared up some space inside so that we could bring in a bunch more boxes.

It is almost 8PM and we haven’t stopped all day.  Time for dinner and vino, we actually may be running out of the latter 😯   I have several photos to post, perhaps later or tomorrow.  We need to slow down and rebuild for tomorrow.  Chow for now.

Our city, Kelowna and many around us are under a state of emergency.  Roads are closed, entire apartment buildings have been evacuated as well as many homes.  We went out for a few hours at noon today and came back to floods within our park.

This was the waterline on our dog fence in the rockery.

A few hours later the last piece of fence had been covered and a lot of the next loop.

The golf course is under water, it is in behind the building there.

The creek just East and North of us has spilled over its banks and is creating a new path, right down into our RV Park.

So the water is flowing towards the lake and helping it rise even faster.

We don’t have much further for it to rise before it comes over into our yard.

So we started to move everything from our basement up into the house. We worked for over three hours steady and then friends came to help for over 90 minutes.

Everything has been moved away from the lake. We can only hope that the creek won’t come from behind us.

It is late and we are exhausted but we spent a lot of money for tickets to attend a function tonight so we are going to change and just go.  Nothing we can do to about the lake so might as well go out and have a good time.

The lake appears to be rising just a bit. We will have a better idea in the morning.

The forecast is for sun and heat the next few days so this snow will be melting.

We have done all we can do to be prepared.  Hopefully we will be lucky.