Much of the small town of Tulameen was under water Thursday brought on by rain and warm temperatures that have kick-started the spring snow melt.

Tulameen, a small recreational community was hardest hit by the flooding when nearby Otter Lake rose almost a metre over Wednesday night and is now draining into the groundwater, raising the water table and flooding low-lying parts of the town.

“There’s nothing we can do about it,” said Evelyn Estacaille a former Yukon government employee (graduated at SOSS in 1965) who lives about a block and a half from the lake. “We just got back yesterday afternoon.

She was using two pumps to keep the foot-high water in her basement from rising, working in shifts throughout last night and today with her partner Betty McCrae. Estacaille said their house, built in 2009, was surrounded by about two feet of water and is in relatively good shape.

The town’s 272 homes are all at risk and most of the 74 houses touched by the rising groundwater have flooded basements and crawlspaces

Thanks to the Vancouver Sun for this story