Air masses from the Pacific Ocean bring ample rainfall to the coast. Autumn and winter are particularly rainy. The interior valleys on the eastern side of the mountains receive much less precipitation. The west-facing mountains of Vancouver Island receive more than 2,500 mm of annual precipitation. By comparison, the east-coast lowland records only about 700 to 1,000 mm. The western slopes of the Coast Mountains accumulate 1,000 to 3,000 mm annually. A large percentage of this precipitation is snowfall. However, the Okanagan Valley only receives 250 mm of annual precipitation.
So let us not be surprised or blame the Americans:
Among the worst remaining breaches is at the Timon Levee alongside the Nooksack, the undammed Washington State river that poured over its banks two weeks ago, sending a great pulse of water into Canada.
Washed-out roads and flooded farmlands in British Columbia have brought to light dire infrastructure needs, which policy experts say other provinces also face as existing infrastructure ages and new and necessary infrastructure remains unbuilt.
A wet fall capped by torrential rain caused landslides and washed out eight B.C. highways. Some have been reopened for general travel and others for essential travel.
The floods have been especially difficult for the Abbotsford area, a problem even more frustrating for city officials given that they have pleaded for years to higher levels of government to upgrade the city’s insufficient dikes.
In 2015, engineers hired by the province deemed the condition of the 17-kilometre Sumas dike “unacceptable.” “Overtopping is expected during Nooksack River overflow,” they wrote. “The dike geometry is substandard, causing concern.”
In 2019, engineers told the City of Abbotsford it would cost an estimated $446 million to do the necessary reconstruction of the dike system. At the time, Mayor Henry Braun called for decisive action and help from higher levels of government because the cost was twice the city’s annual budget. At a Nov. 19 press conference, Braun restated his belief in the project.
“I shouldn’t say this, my staff will get mad at me, but I can see that whole structure, that whole dike, having to be repaired—not repaired, rebuilt—to a higher standard,” he said.
Indeed.
Along with the expensive, time-wasting and fruitless inquiries and commissions, the province of British Columbia is adept at crippling itself in other ways:
British Columbia has extended its state of emergency to support flood recovery efforts as well as orders limiting fuel purchases for non-essential vehicles and restricting travel along hard-hit sections of the province’s compromised highways.
In announcing the extensions on Monday, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth said the “significant weather” continues to pose challenges for the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which normally brings in 85 per cent of the fuel that is required in B.C. for refining and has been offline since Nov. 14.
“The fuel conservation measures are working and I want to thank British Columbians for their patience – but we need to stay the course for another two weeks until we have the Trans Mountain Pipeline back online,” Mr. Farnworth said. “We need to ensure our supply chains, and emergency services, have the fuel that they need to function.”
**
Two people were arrested Monday morning after blockading an access road used by the company building a gas pipeline on traditional Indigenous territories in northern B.C.
RCMP arrested about 30 Wet'suwet'en members and supporters — along with two photojournalists — in the same area on Nov. 18 and 19.
At the time, police officials said they had dismantled blockades "to rescue" more than 500 pipeline employees stranded in Coastal GasLink work camps because of dwindling water and food supplies.
**
Lets shut Line 5 down for awhile too.
— Cory Morgan (@CoryBMorgan) November 24, 2021
BC is learning how life is without pipelines.
Biden is learning what happens when you cancel pipelines.
Let's hit the trifecta and teach the east about life without pipelines as well.
Call it energy reality learning week. https://t.co/EmXqgGJkAY
No comments:
Post a Comment