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Flying over the affected floods

Fortis in Kelowna takes the Capital News out on a tour of flood impacted areas
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The mouth of Mission Creek in Kelowna from the air, June 2, 2017.

Fortis BC says they are not expecting any wide-spread power outages due to high waters in the Kelowna area and other parts of the province.

But the power company is ready to respond to any outages and has set up area command centres and is putting together contingency plans in the event of any problems due to high water.

On Friday, a Fortis crew took the Capital News along to view some flood areas as part of a regular maintenance run, inspecting power lines and sub stations.

Areas flown over include the mouth of Mission Creek in Kelowna.

“Given the potential peak levels of Okanagan Lake, we don’t have any major concerns,” said Nicole Bogdanovic, corporate communications advisor. “But we are very active in monitoring infrastructure and keeping our eyes on what’s happening.”

Bogdonovic said there have been pockets of outages in certain areas that the company has dealt with, but nothing wide-scale.

The fly-0ver took a look at Kelowna’s City Park, where the beach is completely underwater.

One of the areas hit hardest in the Lake Country area is around Duck Lake, where the Holiday Park Resort faced evacuations. Some power poles around Duck Lake did come in contact with water, however the company said it would not compromise the power.

The Fortis flyover was to inspect potential flood areas but also part of the company’s regular maintenance on its power-lines. A two-man crew inspected the lines all the way to Vernon, to Black Mountain and out to Big White, as well as to Penticton.

Fortis is currently working with as many as six different regional districts, monitoring flooding in several difference areas.