January 26, 2005
The Globe and Mail
Vancouver — Ice jams, floods and mudslides caused by wacky weather in parts of British Columbia have forced up to 300 people from their homes and put hundreds of others on evacuation alert.
Jim Whyte, manager of the provincial emergency program, said fallout from unseasonably warm temperatures that haven't been seen in almost a decade could continue for at least another week.
Most of the grief is being caused by massive ice jams, such as in the town of Hixon near Prince George, where a thick soup of fog prevented crews from doing an aerial assessment early Wednesday, Mr. Whyte said.
"If that ice is floating around, a block of ice can weigh several tonnes and if you get hit by it, it can do a lot of damage," Mr. Whyte said.
He said Hixon is currently the biggest concern in the area as residents are on edge, waiting to see if the ice jams will dislodge and cause flooding.
Ice jams, including some on the Thompson River in the Okanagan, have recently been pushed along by heavy flows from pounding rain.
Melting snow triggered by temperatures that have reached 20 degrees above normal added to the problem, Whyte said.
"It's not uncommon for these rivers to ice up but it's very uncommon for us to get these kinds of flows in January," he said.
"We're getting flows that we'd expect in April," Mr. Whyte said, adding 30 rivers and creeks in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District have had significant ice jams in the last couple weeks.
The Mad River bridge on Highway 5 was closed earlier this week after an ice jam slammed into it and knocked it out of alignment on the North Thompson River about 35 kilometres north of Clearwater.
"The bridge to Birch Island might be a writeoff," Mr. Whyte said of the structure that was also the victim of an ice jam.
On Monday, about 100 people were evacuated from 40 nearby homes.
Further north, there are new problems.
Five homes were evacuated because of an ice jam on the Nechako River west of Prince George, Meanwhile, water levels on the Willow River outside of Prince George are up significantly and several ice jams have occurred in the East Pine River east of Chetwynd.
Near Quesnel, 25 low-lying homes are still evacuated because of ice jams on Cottonwood River and Naver Creek.
Mr. Whyte said a cold snap followed by a 20-degree temperature jump is sending too much ice down too many rivers.
He said B.C. usually has ice jams on one or two rivers every few years, but in the last few weeks, that number has reached close to 30 rivers and streams
Damage from weather-related disasters has so far totalled up to $15-million, Solicitor General Rich Coleman told an open cabinet meeting in Victoria on Wednesday.
A state of emergency has been declared in five areas provincewide.
They include the district of North Vancouver, where people from 20 homes remain evacuated because of the risk of a mudslide after heavy rains.
Nearby residents, where one woman died last week after a mudslide, were permitted to return to their homes Tuesday.
In the Okanagan communities of Barriere and Lewis Creek, ice jam has released on the North Thompson River, raising fears of flooding as up to 500 people were put on evacuation alert. The alert was lifted later Wednesday.
The two towns were ravaged by forest fires two years ago, forcing many to flee their homes that later burned to the ground.
"It's unfortunate," Mr. Whyte said. "It's the same area and the people are now being hit by another major event."
Meanwhile, in the south, the Canadian Coast Guard issued an unusual warning to captains on the lower Fraser River telling them to watch for large chunks of ice.
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