Merritt may not be out of the woods yet when it comes to the wet stuff.

Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the Nicola Valley, after about 20 millimetres of rain fell in about an hour Saturday night.

Merritt received another 15 millimetres of rain on Sunday.

The thunderstorm watch is in place for much of the B.C. Interior.

Meteorologist Doug Lundquist said the southwest Interior will likely see more thunderstorms this week, although it may not necessarily be the Nicola Valley that’s hit again.

“We’ll warm up and dry up a bit for a couple of days, but it looks like towards the end of the week or weekend there’s more chance of severe weather,” Lundquist said.

These thunderstorms can be quite localized, he said.

“Today is another day where it could be significant and severe, but it’s not going to be exactly the same areas.”

Lundquist said there are precautions to take to prepare for this type of severe weather.

“People should check their infrastructure, make sure culverts are cleaned out, ditches are working properly,” Lundquist said.

Public works manager Sean Boven advises people to clear any catch basins they see plugging up in front of their homes.

Lundquist also said people should make sure the gutters on their homes are cleaned out.

If hail returns, cover up whatever you can that is exposed, and stay indoors if there is lightning.

The meteorologist is predicting there won’t be much wind associated with any storms coming to the region this week, and will more likely consist of heavy downpours of rain and localized flash floods.

Saturday’s thunderstorm in Merritt brought marble-sized hail, swirling winds, thunder, lightning and heavy rain that flooded streets, but Merritt was left with an insignificant amount of damage.

A few homes along Merritt Avenue were reported to have experienced minor flooding in basements.

Juniper Drive from the cemetery to Highway 8 was closed down as the fire department and city crews tended to a mudslide that covered about half a lane.

No one was hurt in that mudslide.

There were also power outages throughout most of the city that lasted about three hours after the storm hit.

Lightning struck and ignited a tree about one kilometre west of Merritt, which the Ministry of Forests responded to, fire chief Dave Tomkinson said.

Boven said public works will be dealing with cleanup from the storm for the next few days.

“The intensity of that storm was something else,” Boven said.

Farmer hit hard

The above video was shot by Lucas Handley, owner of 3 Bar Farms on Tomkinson Road in the Sunshine Valley. He experienced a mudslide that buried the wheels of vehicles on the property and covered about an acre of land in mud two feet deep.

Handley said  the mudslide caved in the doors of his garage and flooded its floor.

“We were just waiting it out,” Handley said of when the storm hit. “We were supposed to be planting, but we saw the rain coming and headed in and waited it out. [The] next thing you know we see a river coming down the hill.”

Handley said he then spent his Sunday digging out his Camero, which had become encased in dried mud that rose almost halfway up the doors and filled in the car’s undercarriage.

He said no one was hurt, and his crops are still in good shape.

“I think we got off pretty lucky,” Handley said.

 

State of emergency in Cache Creek

The nearby community of Cache Creek was not so fortunate.

The thunderstorm that struck the community of 1,000 on Saturday caused major flooding of homes and roadways, shut down highways, damaged trailers and covered the community in mud and debris.

Cache Creek Mayor  John Ranta issued a state of emergency on Sunday, and various properties have been placed under evacuation order, impacting about 40 people, while another 80 residents are under evacuation alert.

Their fire department remains operational and the initial assessment of their water and sewer system shows no sign of damage.

Cache Creek, as well as Merritt, Logan Lake, Lytton and Thompson-Nicola Regional District areas M, N, I and E have been approved for disaster financial relief assistance from the provincial government.

Qualifying home owners, residential tenants, farmers, small business owners and charities who were unable to obtain insurance to cover disaster-related losses can apply through Emergency Management BC for up to $300,000.

Lundquist said these thunderstorms happen every year, and mid-May to the beginning of July is the monsoon season for the southwest Interior.

He said this year, however, warm water in the pacific ocean this year has contributed enhanced thunderstorms.

“That adds more moisture and more energy to the storms then we usually would expect this time of year,” Lundquist said.

He said people can check Environment Canada’s webpage for weather warnings and radar as other precautionary measures.