kelowna

I live in the West Kelowna-Peachland district (side note, did that change from last year?) and Elections BC only lists BC United and BC Conservatives¹ as candidates. If another independent or party does not step up, does this mean I simply don't get a choice this election?

¹ Candidate List

The cold snap from a few weeks ago might affect the wine industry in the valley. Hopefully some of the vines can recover.

The EOC has published resources and a booklet to help people return home.

The McDougall Creek Wildfire has gotten quite bad, and evacuation orders are in effect for portions of West Kelowna, portions of Westbank First Nation, and the Central Okanagan West Electoral Area. To make things worse, another fire has started in the McKinley Landing & North Clifton areas, and the EOC have put more properties on evacuation alert in the Clifton Road North and McKinley neighbourhoods. Fire is visible on Castanet's webcams, and they also have a live feed of the North Clifton fire.

Information about the fires is currently on CORD and Castanet. You can also sign up for emergency notifications here, and you can check the wildfire pages on CORD to see if you're on evacuation order or alert. Hopefully the brave people fighting these fires will be okay, and remember to stay alert.

Edit: Reddit's r/kelowna also has a lot of information including a live chat about the situation.

Update: Properties surrounding Hidden Lake and Still Pond have been placed under evacuation order. To see if you're affected, check the interactive map. The Kelowna Yacht Club also has weather information available here, and the fire is now clearly visible on their camera stream. Air quality is expected to get worse too (see here).

Update: Officials have confirmed some structural loss in West Kelowna, and they'll apparently have a report out at 10 AM.

Update: More evacuation orders are coming out, and the airspace around the YLW airport has been closed. It might be smart to pack a bag just in case.

Update: The RCMP has apparently ordered all tenants of UBC Okanagan and their nearby housing units to evacuate.

Update: It was less windy today, and thanks to the work of 500+ firefighters plus the government, first responders, etc., they've made progress on the fire. The UBCO evacuation order has also been downgraded to an alert for now. The YLW airport has also not charging for additional parking required due to flight cancellations, but they're looking for some options to resume (source). (As a side note, I'm impressed by how well this situation has been handled so far by the city, the firefighters, the RCMP, the EOC, the YLW, etc.)

Update: It rained this morning. More evacuation orders are being removed, and the EOC has added a tool to check if a property has incurred losses. (Unfortunately, it's down right now.)

Knox Mountain Park won't re-open until at least Tuesday.

Not as fun as r/Kelowna, but it's a start.

When enough is enough. Here are friendly and open minded fellas.