Top Stories – Sept 29 – Get Tired

If a trip through the mountain passes is in your future, don’t forget that starting Sunday winter tires must be on your vehicle. For cars that includes tires with the M&S marking or the mountain with snowflake. On the Connector and Coquihalla, they have to stay on until April 30th, for other routes such as Highway 97 and 33 in the southern interior, the end date is March 31st.

Central Okanagan Emergency Operations Centre which has been going full strength since the middle of August is closing down operations for now. Yesterday the final single property evacuation order for the McDougall Creek Wildfire was lifted and the City of West Kelowna ended its local state of emergency. It’s estimated that 10,700 properties were on Evacuation Order, plus an additional 10,700 on Alert impacting approximately 50,000 residents.

Invitations for seasonal flu shots and updated Covid vaccines will be going out after Thanksgiving in BC. Health officials say they are already seeing an increase in hospitalizations for respiratory illness. Medical mask wearing will be required by all health-care workers, volunteers, contractors and visitors in patient care areas starting Tuesday.

A comprehensive transportation strategy for the Central Okanagan examines a range of projects that will help connect people with their communities. Among the suggestions: intersection improvements in Peachland; removal of the Highway 97 Couplet in West Kelowna; and completion of the Boucherie Road and Westlake Road interchanges. It also explores ways to improve capacity on the Bennett Bridge including adding an additional eastbound lane.

In case you missed it, the campfire ban for all of the central Okanagan has been rescinded, except for Kelowna where campfires are never allowed in the city boundaries. The rain we had this week definitely played a role in the fire chiefs changing their minds from earlier this week.

The University of Alberta has closed a 30-thousand-dollar endowment fund carrying Yaroslav Hunka’s name. It has returned the money to the family of the Ukrainian man whose presence in Parliament last week has sparked an international uproar. Hunka was introduced as a hero during a visit from Ukraine’s president, only to have it emerge that he had fought in a Ukrainian unit set up by the Nazis.

The remaining evacuation alerts for the Glen Lake wildfire were lifted yesterday. BC wildfire crews will continue to focus efforts on the eastern end of the fire. Tree assessors and fallers continue to support crews to ensure safe working conditions and heavy equipment control lines have been completed while structure protection has been completely demobilized.

It’s usually hit and miss this time of year with the forecasting but the advisory is out there nonetheless. Environment Canada says up to 2 centimetres of snow could happen at Pennask Summit on the Connector, Paulson Summit and Kootenay Pass. The snow levels were predicted to fall to about 1500 metres.

The federal government is coping with apparent cyberattacks this week, as a hacker group in India claims responsibility. The Canadian Forces says its website was unavailable to mobile users midday Wednesday, but was fixed within a few hours. The hacking group has posted multiple versions of a message riddled with spelling and grammatical errors onto websites of restaurants and medical clinics as well.

SPORTS

It’s the second game of the regular season for the Kelowna Rockets tomorrow. The new team in the WHL, the Wenatchee Wild are at Prospera Place for a 7:05 face off. Pre-game show on 1047 the Lizard begins at 6:35.

The Okanagan Sun have the first of a home and home set with the Prince George Kodiaks tomorrow in the Spruce City. They are back at the Apple Bowl next Saturday.

The BC Lions have a late home game at 7:30 tonight as the Saskatchewan Roughriders are in Vancouver. Toronto plays Winnipeg at 5.

It’s the final weekend of the regular season for the Toronto Blue Jays as they attempt to hold on to a wild card spot in the American league. The Tampa Bay Rays are at Rogers Centre. The Jays beat the Yankees yesterday.