Village Postpones Council Meeting Due to Floods

The flood threat in Lumby has kept village staff so busy, last night’s scheduled council meeting was postponed.

Mayor Kevin Action says it’s just been too busy with flooding to worry about a council agenda.

The next meeting is scheduled for June 5th.

The Mayor has high praise for his staff in organizing everything that needed to be done to keep the village safe

“There’s lots of moving pieces, so I feel for my staff because they have to make sure all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed.”

Acton says it was best to keep attention on what’s going on outside

“We just put it back (the council date), thinking maybe I’ll let my administrative staff catch up with what they’re doing with the logistics and personnel before we put an agenda together,” Acton tells Kiss FM.

Photo: Kevin Acton, Lumby Mayor.

Acton says the way everyone came together to keep the village safe is amazing.

Ryan Benson from the village’s emergency operations centre says the water levels in Lumby are down about 20 centimetres since the weekend — much to the relief of residents.

Benson says a state of emergency continues — to help with the recovery efforts.

“There are still 24 properties that have been evacuated, but we’re doing assessments on those. They are also doing some water quality testing but the water quality has been excellent. They have a deep well here so there’s not any concerns about contamination,” Benson tells Kiss FM.

Benson says crews have added extra capacity to prevent flooding.

“Even if we went up to the level of flooding we had a week and a half ago, there’s capacity to absorb that much water and more, so they’ve essentially more than doubled the excess capacity above their regular water levels.”

Benson says they are well stocked for sandbags with about 10,000 spares, which he says other communities in need are welcome to use.