Weather update

Monday’s post – whilst touching on a serious subject – did so in a manner which might, on reflection, seem to some to be a little on the flippant side.

When I wrote that post I had certainly been looking at some of the images from the interior of BC and checking in on the news coverage – but there had at that stage been no reports of injuries and certain none of fatalities.

A day and more later the situation is slowly becoming clearer and the extent of the flooding and damage to property and to the transport infrastructure is becoming more apparent.

There have also – of course – now been the first reports of fatalities and of missing persons. The tone of this post is accordingly considerably more sombre and our thoughts and best wishes go out to those affected.

British Columbia has come in for yet another climate related battering. Mud slides and washouts on major routes have effectively shut Vancouver off from anywhere further east in Canada. We watched the news reports come in as each of the major routes was cut one by one. Some of the damage is significant and will take many months to repair.

The lower Fraser valley at Abbotsford is badly flooded and there have been many evacuations in that area. On Monday the entire town of Merritt was evacuated as the flood waters rose. Those who are familiar with Merritt will understand entirely how this happened. Merritt lies in a bowl surrounded by mountains and the runoff from two days of rain had nowhere else to go.

Victoria was cut off from the rest of Vancouver Island on Monday as the Highway 1 route over the Malahat mountain was flooded. A single lane has since been reopened but it will take a week of night-time closures for the damage to the formation to be repaired sufficient to re-open the whole road.

We are blessed here on the peninsula. There had been no shortage of surface water in our neck of the woods (it runs off Mount Newton behind us) but the water cascades down the slopes in all directions and into the sea – so within 24 hours most local routes were once again navigable.

For these small mercies we are infinitely grateful.