Fraser River Dykes and levees

[Sundancefisher]

600 km of dykes and levees to block the Fraser from natural season fluctuations.

https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/public...index_2011.pdf

I didn’t realize the significant problem BC has dug themselves.

This was a one in a hundred year flood. This weather disaster wasn’t global warming induced. It was allowing building in high flood prone areas, damming off and draining a lake to build on, channelizing a major River without any pressure valves.

Just watching a show on it now. Sadly CBC isn’t commenting from a perspective of stop building in stupid areas… but rather put billions of tax payer money to allow people to live on the bottom of a lake.

This isn’t a failure of climate action. It’s a failure of common sense.



Sumas Lake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumas_Lake

[waldedw]

Sadly engineers had been warning of this for years, guess what 90% of them will rebuild with tax payers money and hope it doesn't happen again, you know what they say " only a fool dose the same thing and expects a different result

[Crankbait]

This has been a problem for awhile, oddly enough the biggest issue about the lake bed now drained was elasticity during a big earthquake.

I think it's a great distraction away from the now showing poor road engineering on hwy 3 and parts of the coquihala . Sadly, it's better that it let go in parts now than midwinter.

[dgl1948]

There has been several studies after some of the floods in the past. It seems elected officials have failed to take action on any of the recommendations. Instead of taking responsibility for their failures to act it is easier to blame climate change. There is a reason Insurance companies will not insure people living in this flood zone.


“Before We Lost the Lake is filled with evidence of the seemingly futile hundred-year human struggle to tame Sumas Lake by draining it of water and turning it into fertile prairie, a never-ending battle to build and re-build dikes and infrastructure in the face of recurring flood episodes of varying magnitudes going back centuries. Sumas and areas south of the United States border have experienced so-called 100-year floods in 1908-1909 and 1932. Floods ranked as 35-year events occurred in 1945, 1949,1955,1975, and 1990. At least a dozen others are on the record.”

[57charlie]

There has been a long history of flooding in Canada. Some areas are hit on a regular basis. We haven't learned anything from them & I don't see that changing anytime soon. Between 1900 and 2005 there were 241 flood disasters in Canada. Some of the more memorable ones:

1879: Fort Calgary flood

1894: Fraser River flood

1897: Fort Calgary flood

1902: Saint John River flood

1915: Calgary flood

1929: Calgary and southern Alberta flood

1929: Tsunami Burin Peninsula, Newfoundland flood

1948: Fraser River flood

1950: Red River flood

1954: Toronto region flood: Hurricane Hazel

1973: Saint John River flood

1974: Grand River flood

1979: Tropical Storm David hit Moncton

1984: Pemberton Valley flooding

1986: Winisk flood

1987: Montreal flood

1996: Saguenay flood

1997: Red River flood, 'flood of the century'

2003: Pemberton / Sea to Sky flood

2004: Edmonton

2005: Southern AB, Burin Peninsula (NFLD & Labrador), Southern Ontario

2007: Saskatchewan spring floods

2008: Saint John River flood

2009: Red River flood

2010: Southern Alberta and Saskatchewan flood

2010: Hurricane Igor in Newfoundland

2011: Assiniboine River flood

2012: Thunder Bay to Montreal

2013: Calgary and Southern Alberta Flood

2013: Southern Ontario Flash Flood

2017: Quebec floods

2021: British Columbia floods

[Grizzly Adams1]

Originally Posted by waldedw

Sadly engineers had been warning of this for years, guess what 90% of them will rebuild with tax payers money and hope it doesn't happen again, you know what they say " only a fool dose the same thing and expects a different result

Our province is arguing with the municipalities, right now, about what constitutes a flood prone area. We shouldn't be too smug, a lot of stupid building has been allowed here as well.

Grizz

[nelsonob1]

Originally Posted by waldedw

Sadly engineers had been warning of this for years, guess what 90% of them will rebuild with tax payers money and hope it doesn't happen again, you know what they say " only a fool dose the same thing and expects a different result

Like High River.

[HunterDave]

The Fifth Estate did a very good job of describing the crumbling and government neglect of the dyke and levee issue in B.C.

They didn’t go easy on the government IMO. Very interesting and worth watching.

https://gem.cbc.ca/media/the-fifth-estate/s47e07

[Mb-MBR]

Imagine thinking that you could drain a lake and thinking water would never return. I read that the lake at one time housed more then one species of salmon as well as other fish.

[Rdamours]

In Galveston they build on stilts to compensate for hurricane tidal surge. They might want to look at the same thing.

[North40Rules]

So you build your home at the bottom of a lake bed and are surprised when you get flooded out? thinking-006:

[Sundancefisher]

Originally Posted by North40Rules

So you build your home at the bottom of a lake bed and are surprised when you get flooded out? thinking-006:

https://financialpost.com/opinion/te...e-change-issue

This article makes it pretty clear what the risks were.

Sumas and areas south of the United States border have experienced so-called 100-year floods in 1908-1909 and 1932. Floods ranked as 35-year events occurred in 1945, 1949,1955,1975, and 1990. At least a dozen others are on the record.

[stuckincity]

Originally Posted by North40Rules

So you build your home at the bottom of a lake bed and are surprised when you get flooded out? thinking-006:

My brother lives in Regina. A few years ago he took me on a tour of a brand-new neighborhood with some really beautiful large houses.
I didn't see his point till he parked, looked at me and said, "Waddya think?"

I said, "Yeah they're nice houses, what about 'em?"

Then he told me they were built on a drained floodplain near the Wascana River and are gonna have major problems during a major rainfall, sump pumps or no sump pumps.
Of course the builder didn't disclose the floodplain part, so I always wondered if anything came of it. Haven't heard anything, maybe I should ask because of the BC flooding.

BTW, I think its moronic to build on floodplains no matter how 'wonderful' the dykes and levees are supposed to be...........

[Sooner]

I recall a city tour in Mazatlán on my honeymoon and we were high up on a hill and the tour guide had us all look down onto a major community area loaded with housing next to the Ocean. Then he said this was built on a flood plain. I will never forget his next words and have seen it play out time after time wherever there is a flood. One day mother nature will take back what's hers.


I never knew Abbotsford was built on a drained lake bed until the recent BC floods happened, I again thought of that tour guides words.


Better rebuild those dykes and levies anticipating extreme events, not 1 in 100 yr storms.

[North40Rules]

Originally Posted by stuckincity

My brother lives in Regina. A few years ago he took me on a tour of a brand-new neighborhood with some really beautiful large houses.
I didn't see his point till he parked, looked at me and said, "Waddya think?"

I said, "Yeah they're nice houses, what about 'em?"

Then he told me they were built on a drained floodplain near the Wascana River and are gonna have major problems during a major rainfall, sump pumps or no sump pumps.
Of course the builder didn't disclose the floodplain part, so I always wondered if anything came of it. Haven't heard anything, maybe I should ask because of the BC flooding.

BTW, I think its moronic to build on floodplains no matter how 'wonderful' the dykes and levees are supposed to be...........

I agree! I live on a lake/big pond actually well above any flooding potential.

It's the same thing if you live on the coastline in Lousiana, Mississippi etc, don't be surprised when you're underwater. There is always a risk if you do not take mother nature seriously!