B.C.’s Emergency Management Minister Kelly Greene says parts of the province are in a “dynamic situation” amid the latest series of atmospheric rivers.
Greene said Wednesday (Dec. 10) that the B.C. River Forecast Centre has upgraded several flood advisories, watches and warnings in the Lower Mainland. A warning is the highest category in B.C.
“This means that river levels have exceeded banks, or will exceed them imminently. This could result in flooding in areas adjacent to rivers,” Greene said.
There is currently a flood warning for the eastern Fraser Valley, including the Sumas and Chilliwack rivers.
The head of B.C.’s River Forecast Centre, David Campbell, said there has been a series of atmospheric rivers in the region.
“We’re expecting that the intensity of (rain) today is really going to continue to keep solid as that rainfall continues to fall, and particularly in that area along the border with the United States,” Campbell said, adding that the most intense rainfall is in Washington State.
“That includes potential relevance when we come into things like the Nooksack River, where the river itself is in the States, but the flooding of that river can impact into the Sumas and into British Columbia.”
The warning from Environment Canada, he said, called for rainfall between 90 and 130 millimetres. During the news conference at 2 p.m., Campbell said “maybe half of that” had come down already on Wednesday.
Campbell said the United State’s National Weather Service was expecting the peak on the Nooksack River at Cedarville, Wash. to be 148.5 feet.
It was at 146.3 feet prior to the news conference.
In 2021, the river went up to 150.3 feet.
“There is still uncertainty in terms of the rainfall, and so we are seeing some of the weather modelling is projecting the kind of high scenario of similar events in 2021 is not likely, but is a possible scenario,” he said.
Greene said she wanted to acknowledge that the people in the eastern Fraser Valley communities have been here before, referring to the historic atmospheric rivers and flooding in November 2021.
“While we don’t know yet exactly what today and the days ahead will bring. The province is preparing for all eventualities, and we have a number of improvements in place that will help us respond today.”
She said there is stronger communication in place today between the B.C. provincial government and the Washington State government.
She added there are new monitoring stations installed on both sides of the border and new cameras installed on the Canadian side that are helping to provide the most up to date information possible.
Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson said in a social media post Wednesday (Dec. 10) that he has activated the national guard to respond to flooding. He said by Wednesday night there will be 100 national guard members ready, and 300 by Thursday.
Ferguson had earlier said the “situation is extremely serious. The next few days are critical.”
There are also flood watches – which is when levels are rising and will approach or may exceed river banks – in effect further east in the Hope-Princeton area, for the Ashnola, Similkameen and Tulameen rivers.