#bc flood

The town of Princeton, B.C., remains in a state of emergency after days of relentless rain caused extreme flooding, and now the scramble is on to get heat and water working in the community again as the mercury drops and freezing temperatures add to the emergency situation.

Half the town is under water after extreme rains pushed the Tulameen and Similkameen rivers to overflow their banks and dikes on Monday, forcing people to evacuate 295 properties and creating a state of emergency in the community of 3,000, located 190 kilometres east of Vancouver.

About 300 properties are still on evacuation alert. The flooding led the local health authority to evacuate long-term care residents from Ridgewood Lodge on Tuesday afternoon.

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(which WAS a joke name, until recently)

well... locally, we all had flooding. i lost my old house 3 days after moving out.

during the flooding, a large barge got stuck in english bay. it is not currently moveable, despite attempts.

well, the vancouver parks board, is at it again

BARGE CHILLING BEACH

"we really hope someone doesn't steal the sign, it's the only one we had made" is a quote from the actual parks board.

The breach of a dike in Abbotsford, B.C., that contributed to disastrous flooding throughout the Sumas plain was anticipated in a 2015 review for the provincial government.

The dike was "too low," "substandard" and "likely needs to be updated" according to a report, written by Northwest Hydraulic Consultants for the Ministry of Forests which looked at 74 dikes across the Lower Mainland.

The report looked at dikes that extend for over 500 kilometres, comprising around half of the total length of those in the province.

The conclusions were grim: 71 per cent of them could be expected to fail during a significant "design event," while none of the dike segments met seismic standards over their entire length.

In addition, half of the province's 178 orphan dikes — that are not under any government's jurisdiction — were in "poor or failing" condition. Upgrading them would cost $865 million, according to a separate 2020 report to the province.  

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Repairing the British Columbia highways washed out by heavy rains and flooding will be complicated by the scale of the damage, the terrain and the coming winter, building experts say.

"It's unprecedented, the size and scope and the number of sites,'' said Joe Wrobel, the president of JPW Road and Bridge, a road-building company based in the north Okanagan area of B.C.

Despite the extent of the damage, Wrobel, whose company is not directly involved in the repairs related to the flooding, said there are processes in place for emergency repairs, adding that the B.C. government has already drawn up lists of available contractors and equipment.

Before work can begin, geotechnical assessments will have to be conducted, Wrobel said in an interview Wednesday. Protecting lives will be the first priority, followed by protecting infrastructure and restoring safe travel, he added.

Every major route between the Lower Mainland and the Interior has been cut by washouts, flooding or landslides following record-breaking rainfall across southern B.C. between Saturday and Monday.

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Brett Diederichs's last words were spoken in the way his sister says he spoke throughout his entire life: to help someone else.

Diederichs, 36, was standing on the main highway outside of Lillooet, B.C., with his mother when he realized a mudslide was charging down the hill above them. In an instant, he shouted at his mother.

"They heard a really intense, loud rumble. The ground shook. The last thing my mom remembers is my brother screaming, 'Mom, get back in your car.' Which she did, just in the nick of time," Kirsten Diederichs, Brett's older sister, said in an interview Wednesday.

"My brother just couldn't make it back. He was immediately lost."

The Diederichs family has identified Brett, a trained paramedic and well-known figure in Toronto's restaurant scene, as the fifth person believed to have been killed by a landslide Nov. 15 in an area of B.C.'s Highway 99 known as the Duffey Lake Road.

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The Insurance Bureau of Canada estimates the insured damage caused by flooding in British Columbia last month at $450 million, calling it the "most costly severe weather event in the province's history.''

However, the overall costs are expected to be much higher since many people affected by the flooding in southwestern B.C. were located in high-risk areas where flood insurance was not available, the bureau said in a news release.

"These disasters are also having an outsized impact on those most vulnerable and, as a result, we must greatly enhance our efforts to mitigate future climate change and to adapt to the new weather reality we face,'' said Aaron Sutherland, vice-president of the Pacific bureau.

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Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun says he's increasingly concerned about rising waters in and around his city as a series of atmospheric rivers continues to pummel B.C.'s South Coast.

During a news conference on Sunday, Braun said Whatcom Country in Washington state had advised that water has now risen above a dike on the Nooksack River, and it's pooling between the river and a nearby road.

Braun expects the water flow to reach Abbotsford sometime Sunday, as existing sandbag walls are not enough to stop the Nooksack River.

"It's gonna go over Main Street [in Everson, Wash.], and then it's headed here. There's nothing to stop it after that," Braun said.

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