The Past
Businesses
Churches
Communities
Community Services
Entertainment
Ethnic Groups
Geography
~ Enderby Cliffs
~ Floods
~ ~ Flood of
1928
~ ~ Flood of 1935
~ ~ Flood of
1948
~ ~ Flood of
1972
~ ~ 1990 Debris
Torrent
~ Geology of North
Okanagan
~ Naming of Enderby
~ Shuswap River
Heritage Homes
Industries
Organizations
People
Schools
Transportation
The origin of the flood of 1935 is open
to contention. According to the newspaper, 48 hours of steady rain preceding a cloudburst
in the hills caused the flood, while George Rands, a lifelong resident says that a week of
steady rain preceding a cloudburst in the hills caused rivers to swell to torrential
proportions.
Of course, the swelling of the rivers caused changes to the creek beds. Brash Creek
started running in a partly old, partly new bed and badly washed the road out. At Ashton
Creek, Ashton Falls was filled with boulders, flooding the swimming hole that was well
remembered and previously enjoyed by the "old timers." The creek itself changed
course five or six times and flooded fields and garden plots. The water covered about one
mile of land at Ashton Creek, and it flooded around the bridge and down the road.
Water was blocked above Mike Rowan's house at Falls Creek and the water swept down both
sides of his home. Lakes formed in his fields, his garage was swept away which,
ironically, held most of his personal possessions because he felt it was "safe".
Transportation routes were interrupted all down the valley by the flood waters. All the
bridges from Vernon to Sicamous were swept out, specifically Hawes' Bridge, Ashton Creek
Bridge, Falls Creek Bridge, and Cooke's Creek Bridge were all destroyed. The rail line
between Vernon and Armstrong was washed out, and five freight cars were in the ditch.
Also, the mainline at Chase was washed out. As for the roads, the Revelstoke highway was
washed out at Malakwa.
The Mabel Lake Road was damaged and under water at Brash Creek, and
between forty and fifty people were stranded at Mabel Lake. Robert McCallum, Henry
Hendrickson, and William Duncan hiked down from Mabel Lake to town through the flooding
after they realized they were stranded. It took them from four o'clock in the morning to
just after noon to reach town.
Because of all the debris in the water, the city had to stop taking water from their Brash
Creek intake, as the water was liquid mud. The intake box and screen were torn off the
pipe and the pipe was blocked with gravel.
There was surprisingly little property damage from the flood in proportion to the
magnitude of the water force. John Olich and Henry Baxter at Ashton Creek found their
fields flooded. Mike Rowan's fields at Falls Creek were destroyed, and he felt at the time
that he was too old to start over again. Various other fields and meadows were flooded,
but none to any great degree.
Although the property damage was low, the flood of 1935 has been well remembered by the
people of the community.
Shelly Glen
AlF School 1989