Pacific NW/AK/BC BC Flooding

[scott43]

Just a heads up for anyone thinking of early season skiing in BC. Some fairly critical roads have been washed away as a result of serious rain and flooding. Check yer routes.

 

[scott43]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-flood-watch-road-closures-1.6249154

 

[cantunamunch]

And a lot of those slides are in burn zones

 

[scott43]

Getting into the interior from Vancouver will be very hard or impossible I imagine. It's a mess.

 

[newboots]

The news report is dreadful.

 

[scott43]

Some main roads have washed out and in difficult places to repair. It could take a while to get things back to functional. The next day or two will provide information on how many roads need to be repaired and how long it could take. Those main roads go up the Fraser and Coquihalla valleys and both are in trouble. Terrible mess, I hope things improve quickly. The entire town of Merritt flooded and the sewage plant was inundated, meaning the entire town is basically infiltrated with sewage. Ugh..

 

[Bad Bob]

BC got the worst of it. NW Washington got hit hard too. I-5 was closed around Bellingham. All lanes covered in water. It will be a while before all the bridge and road washouts are reported,
NE WA was pretty much just downed trees and power outages (Thank you Jesus!).

 

[Posaune]

I-5 was closed around Bellingham. All lanes covered in water.

Also a hillside collapsed covering both directions with mud, trees, rocks, etc. You can't get to the Mt. Baker Ski Area for at least a day or two because of water over the Mt. Baker highway, but for skiing it doesn't matter. The snow is mostly gone after all the rain. They had almost enough to open, but now they almost have to start over. They had 15" of rain in 6 days and their 40" base went down to 15" of concrete. Moderate to light snow is now in the forecast.

Here in B'ham the sun is out and the sky is blue but the flooding isn't over as the water works its way out of the soil and down off the mountains. Schools are still closed.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

the road up to Baker could be in bad shape.
The Nooksack has over flown its banks, water from it is now flowing north into Canada towards the Fraser.
A large area of Abbotsford has been evacuated and Hwy 1 between Chilliwack and Vancouver is now also closed.

 

[Posaune]

The Nooksack has over flown its banks, water from it is now flowing north into Canada towards the Fraser.

Actually, that's the Sumas River that's overflowing (so is the Nooksack but it's not flowing across the border). The Sumas R. begins well into Whatcom County and flows across the border at Sumas. It's a regular tributary of the Fraser. We have little creeks that nobody pays attention to overflowing their banks and turning city streets and local roads into raging torrents because there is no room for the water within their regular banks. It's a mess.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

expect your right, our media reported it coming from the Nooksack but that makes more sense.

 

[Nathanvg]

I'm seeing road closures near Golden and even Banff. Did it really rain (and not snow) that far east? I'm also seeing 3 feet of snow at Lake Louise.

 

[babanff]

Yep got a bit of rain in Banff mixed with the snow, but luckily mostly snow, esp up higher (I think LL stayed above the snow line the whole time). Bigger issue though with roads was the rain/refreeze that was going on. Turned cold again today so roads and sidewalks have turned to ice rinks. Hwy 1 is closed just east of Golden for the twinning project (closed until Dec 1), so traffic is detoured down 93S, which turned into a mess during the storm and shut down for awhile due to multiple accidents.

 

[DanoT]

Earlier today I was thinking that the only way to get from Vancouver to the B.C. interior was going to be via hwy 99 thru Whistler, but then there was a report of a fatality as a result of a mud slide on hwy 99. I have seen videos of cars and RVs being swept away in swollen rivers. There could be more fatalities that we don't yet know about and it could be weeks before road travel between Vancouver and the interior resumes.

 

[tomahawkins]

Also a hillside collapsed covering both directions with mud, trees, rocks, etc.

My wife got stuck in the I-5 mess coming back from Mt Vernon. 12 hours in the car to go 3 miles.

 

[Jilly]

@DanoT , my friends from Sun Peaks went grocery shopping in Kamloops today...not good, bare shelves.

I still haven't hear from one the Vancouver Ski Diva's. She's lives in Richmond I think.

 

[DanoT]

@DanoT , my friends from Sun Peaks went grocery shopping in Kelowna today...not good, bare shelves.

I still haven't hear from one the Vancouver Ski Diva's. She's lives in Richmond I think.

Yeah, the hording is kinda stupid as freight can still be shipped from Calgary. Goods coming from Asia will no doubt be delayed.

Airports will be busy.

Kelowna is about 3 hours from Sun Peaks, so they probably went shopping 3/4 hours away in Kamloops instead. (mixing up Kamloops and Kelowna is fairly common, even for people from the lower mainland).

 

[noncrazycanuck]

up date north of border is
@fvcurrent.com/article/Fraser-Valley-flooding-and-mudslides

On government sites seems there was a plan to mitigate the damage from the Nooksak over flowing it's banks at Everson and flowing north.
Was commissioned after the 1995 flood but the 2 governments never acted on it. Not blaming them. Like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or fire storms spending the money in advance to prevent a once in a century event is never a politically popular thing to do., However we seem to be having many once in a century events now.

We are going to Banff/Cochrane for Christmas, wife's already looking into flying so I may have to leave the skis behind- a very minor issue compared to what other's have going on.

 

[Posaune]

up date north of border is
@fvcurrent.com/article/Fraser-Valley-flooding-and-mudslides

On government sites seems there was a plan to mitigate the damage from the Nooksak over flowing it's banks at Everson and flowing north.
Was commissioned after the 1995 flood but the 2 governments never acted on it. Not blaming them. Like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes or fire storms spending the money in advance to prevent a once in a century event is never a politically popular thing to do., However we seem to be having many once in a century events now.

We are going to Banff/Cochrane for Christmas, wife's already looking into flying so I may have to leave the skis behind- a very minor issue compared to what other's have going on.

Now that I study the terrain map I can see that, historically, this has happened in the past. I was incorrect about the Sumas River. It certainly is part of the problem but there is a very distinct ripple in the texture of the otherwise flat landscape between Everson and Lynden. You can see the ripples would lead an overflow from the Nooksack right down to Sumas and Abbotsford and, of course, the Fraser.

 

[tomahawkins]

Now that I study the terrain map I can see that, historically, this has happened in the past. I was incorrect about the Sumas River. It certainly is part of the problem but there is a very distinct ripple in the texture of the otherwise flat landscape between Everson and Lynden. You can see the ripples would lead an overflow from the Nooksack right down to Sumas and Abbotsford and, of course, the Fraser.

Yes, these ripples are pretty telling, almost like a reverse alluvial fan: water pouring over a broad brim and funneling to a single point as it drops elevation. It looks like the Nooksack runs parallel to a low divide, almost from Nugents Corner all the way to Lynden. The headwaters of the Sumas River is only about 2000 feet from the Nooksack riverbank.