With river levels expected to rise, the Village of Cache Creek is asking people to avoid the banks of local creeks and rivers.

This after the B.C. River Forecast Centre issued a high streamflow advisory for parts of the Interior, which included the Cache Creek area, west of Kamloops.

“As many of you may be aware, there are predictions of high water in Cache Creek and other waterways in the region,” the Village said, in a statement. “While the creek is currently still low, we expect this to change with the warmer weather predicted over the next [five] days.”

As of the most recent update as of April 1, the Lower Thompson snowpack was among the highest in the province – at 131 per cent of normal. That is considerably higher than the B.C. average of 88 per cent of normal.

Hydrologist Jonathan Boyd also told NL News in March, that the area around Cache Creek was a bit of a concern owing to the high snowpack in the Lower Thompson.

The Cache Creek statement goes on to say that staff and council are actively monitoring river levels with the area having been hit hard by flooding in past years, damaging the fire hall on more on that occasion, most recently in 2020.

The village’s former fire chief, Clayton Cassidy, was also swept away by flood waters in 2017.

“We have been in hazard preparedness workshops in recent weeks, in contact with other government agencies discussing concerns, and have made provisions for mitigation measures if necessary,” the statement added.

“If we are communicating further on this subject we will use this medium [Facebook] and VoyentAlert!“