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Princeton dealing with breaks in water lines, little water service to homes

Almost 300 properties remain on evacuation order.
princeton flooding
Princeton on Monday, Oct. 15.

The Town of Princeton continues to fight to recover from devastating floods that began Sunday evening when the Tulameen River spilled over into town.

Much of the downtown area has lost water service again Wednesday morning, while crews work to isolate the problems.

"People are gonna lose their lose water pressure pretty quick here if they haven't already. And that's going to compound the problem, because we don't have any of our fire hydrants working. They actually haven't been working all night because we don't have enough pressure," Mayor Spencer Coyne explained.

"And so we'll have to be taking water from rivers and ponds and whatnot to to be able to do fire protection."

Crews are looking for holes in the water lines that were caused by the flooding, hoping to get those fixed to allow the reservoir to refill.

"But we will still be on a do-not-consume order. Because we've had infiltration from the river just due to the fact that those lines have broken open," Coyne said.

Temperatures dipped below zero Wednesday morning, an added concern for the community as power and heat continue to be spotty.

That, added to the fact that major trucking routes into town are blocked and grocery store shelves getting very bare, is a worrisome situation.

In total, 295 properties remain under evacuation order. And later in the week, more rain is in the forecast.

"So that is a concern. Yes. We haven't filled the holes yet," Coyne said.