Weather - Discussion

@Norcalgal @GuardianAngel Thankyou for your concern....We are being told that the Coquihalla highway will take several months, Highway 3 of the south will hopefully be open in a 5-9 days, but highway 1 going from Vancouver to Hope where you can connect with Highway 3 will take weeks to fix.

On the island where I live some of the roads locally are drying up but need to then be tested for stability. Otherwise the north south island highway is split in 3 right now as the far north is cut off from the rest of the island and the central is cut off from the south because of the malahat highway mudslides. This is absolutely nuts.....several areas of the province were cut off from the rest by fires this summer, now all the floods are doing the same in approximately the same areas especially when you look at where the rivers originate from were the fire regions. apparently there are a lot of logs and debris going into those rivers which also contributed to the flooding. Apparently the flooding in Abbotsford/Sumas Prairie is now covering 90 square km's right now..... 60sq miles. Luckily the army is coming into the area overnight tonight and will be working on projects starting tomorrow. 120 soldiers will be here and bringing in equipment to get things started in fixing this mess. I had no idea till tonight that there were well over 100 trucks waiting in Kamloops and several more in Keremeos/Princeton as they are stuck waiting for the highway to clear. Starting tonight, the USA border is allowing people to use the usa to get from Vancouver to the Okanagan/Alberta without passports or covid testing. I don't know how long that will be allowed to happen right now.

I am sorry for going on as I am but tonight we found out that the lady that died in that mudslide was also with her husband who is on the missing list with 4 others....they left their 2 yr old daughter with family while they went for a get away for the weekend. As it looks now, the daughter was orphaned by the slide.

@Aunties_Love thanks for the updates. It's such a devastating situation. I feel for the families of those who are missing. It's horrible. Thank you USA for helping with border crossings.

Is it possible to fly into Vancouver and what is the situation on Vancouver Island for getting around the downtown area?

I'm so sorry for all of you who live in the affected areas in B.C. I hope things start to improve quickly. I have family in B.C. but so far everyone is okay although I have cousins in Princeton which will take some time to recover.

@Aunties_Love I am sorry for everyone waiting for things to get repaired. That poor child. I can't even fathom.

@Aunties_Love I just hope that this disaster brings out the best of your neighbors. It's stressful for everyone but helping others can help you, too. Keep in touch when you can and we are hoping for the best for all of you - safe water, warmth, hot meals, laundry and showering facilities while you put your homes and livelihoods back together.

Well, travelling just got a whole lot harder.  Fuel limits of 30litres of fuel for everyone but essential workers and vehicles.  The highways are closed to all but essential transportation and vehicles.

They are now getting ships into the port, unloading products, putting them on trucks and getting them to the airport where cargo planes are picking them up.  Before the flooding and road/railway problems, they use to unload the cargo containers onto trains who would then take the product to the airports and the rest of the country....that can't happen right now so working on other solutions.

food and gas are in short supply on the island right now.  Hopefully that will be fixed soon as they are getting the ferries to transport goods from north island to south island.  Victoria was ok with the rain, just minor flooding in areas.  same with the roads in my area, but between us the Malahat Island Highway mountain pass, there were slides and flooding.  Areas of the road are missing.

I just hope that we see remnants of normality soon for everyone's moral.


ETA:

Check these out.  THe first 2 pics are from the Malahat on Vancouver island where I live, the rest are from the flooded areas.:

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CWejoCsv7kQ/

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CWd0qZiNKuB/

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https://www.instagram.com/p/CWdwgUTvX7i/

an example of the rv factory fire:

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A post shared by Meadowgold Creek Farm (@meadowgold_creek_farm)

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWegfCJPUAg/

If you want to check out more......

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/bcstorm/

https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/bcfloods/

@Aunties_Love Wow. That is insane. I hope things normalize quickly. BC just can't seem to catch a break.

@Aunties_Love Those pictures speak a thousand words. So much water ... so much devastation. I'm almost speechless.

@Aunties_Love Oh wow I have no words how terrible. Please stay safe!

We "dried" out for a couple of days and then this all over again.  It is supposed to be somewhat dry for today and tomorrow then back into the wet for several days coming. My area didn't have the rains as bad as Chilliwack/Abbotsford area but we still had almost 620mm of rain for the month of November. Normally we don't even get half that much. It is going to be several weeks still before the evacuated people in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Hope, Surrey, etc are allowed home.  Highways 1, 5, 9, 99 are all still closed which makes traversing the lower mainland a living nightmare.  Highway 3 is the only one that is open but that is still to truck traffic and transportation of goods from the Okanagan Valley/Alberta connections through to Hope.  Then at Hope, you have to jumble up the journey into 4 different highways to get to Vancouver.  All of these pics except for the top one came from 20 miles around where I am living.

Nanaimo — 620 millimetres.(25inches) (Normal seasonal average: 342 millimetres). Abbotsford — 885 millimetres.(35inches) (Normal seasonal average: 475 millimetres)

source

@Aunties_Love As we are farmers, we follow the weather avidly and I just was dumbfounded when I saw more atmospheric rivers were forecast for the NW (and by default, BC). Geez - those roads look dangerous with water pooling and actively flowing over them. I guess doing essential business (like going to work or to the store) is a calculated risk as there is very little alternative. I just feel for all of you - this is way beyond abnormal. Hold on and hang in there and, most importantly, be safe.

The rains have affected so many lives in every corner of the country in one way or another. It is truly heartbreaking to watch from afar and to see how it got so bad so quickly. When I heard the weather warnings the other day, I couldn't believe another round was coming. Prayers to all affected. I hope it stops so work can continue in rebuilding and clean up.