Lake Panache residents cut off by high water, fear flood damages

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Flooding devastates Panache Lake properties

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Water levels at Lake Panache continue to pose serious risks to property and safety, as community members watch their land slowly emerge from flooding while fearing the extent of damage yet to be revealed.

Sarah Lucas, Panache Bay Marina’s office manager, described the severity of the situation to CTV News.

“There’s a lot of damage done to the lake this year. Clearly, as everyone can see, we have very, very high-water levels. There’s a lot of damage down here as well,” she said.

“It’s very dangerous to go out on the lake right now. There’s a lot of debris floating around. There’s buildings, there’s logs, all sorts of things.”

Some boathouses and docks have floated away entirely, while others remain deeply submerged beneath the water.

Residents unable to access properties

Ken Goebel, the president of the West Bay Panache Campers Association, shared his experience of watching his dock drift away.

“I had a friend, a neighbour on the lake that was, driving by with his boat, just by happen chance, drove by and saw my huge dock – It’s 40 feet long and 16 feet wide. So, it’s a really heavy dock and he said it was floating probably about 50 feet away from my property, going down the lake.”

While residents are warning boat owners to exercise caution on the lake, there are few ways to launch a boat at all. Many boat launches and docks are flooded or damaged, and a substantial number of properties on the lake are accessible only by boat.

Goebel identified one of the community’s primary obstacles.

“One of the bigger problems is that both main docks on the east end and our west end in our area, our docks aren’t capable of launching boats,” he said.

Amanda Pellinen, who has owned property on Lake Panache for about seven years, has yet to see the damage to her property in person.

“It’s devastating for people that want to get up to camp and enjoy the weekends and you just simply just cannot get there,” she said.

“There’s no way to launch your boat. There’s no way unless you’re going to swim across the lake, there’s simply no way to get up there.”

Goebel told CTV News that even those with boathouses on Panache face significant challenges as water levels have risen so high in some instances that boats now sit in the rafters of the boathouses.

Community bands together

Lucas emphasized that the current situation has no precedent in her experience.

“This is unprecedented. The amount of water we have this year it’s unheard of. So, there’s nothing anybody can do at this point until the water comes down to actually see how much damage has been done,” she said.

Despite the helplessness many feel, the community has rallied to provide updates to one another. Residents hope that shared information will warn boaters about potential debris in the water.

Goebel said a member of his community started a website where residents can post images of items floating down the lake for property owners to identify, since they are unable to rescue the items themselves.

Caution urged for those able to launch boats

Many residents who spoke with CTV News on Wednesday said individuals whose boats are already in the water should be mindful of creating waves that could cause additional destruction.

“Just make sure you’re driving at a trolling speed. Be really careful and mindful of other people’s properties out there (and) any sort of wake causes extra damage,” said Pellinen.

Lucas echoed the plea for careful boating practices among those still able to launch.

“The water is four feet higher than normal right now and it’s dangerous to do so. It’s causing damage, more damage to our docks, more damage to our buildings. Every time there’s a wave or a little bit of wake from a vehicle, it’s eroding gravel. It’s eroding cribbing under docks. It’s shifting our docks, floating them around more than they need to be,” she said.