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Years of warnings about poor flood plans ignored prior to B.C. floods, says
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YEARS OF WARNINGS ABOUT POOR FLOOD PLANS IGNORED PRIOR TO B.C. FLOODS, SAYS
CONSULTING FIRM

By Elizabeth McSheffrey & Ted Chernecki Global News
Posted November 23, 2021 8:59 pm    
Updated November 24, 2021 12:56 pm
2:16 B.C. floods: Reports calling for major upgrades to Sumas Prairie dike
system ignored
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For decades, experts have been warning the dike system protecting prime B.C.
farmland in the Fraser Valley is inadequate, but those concerns were largely
ignored. Ted Chernecki reports.
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Years of warnings about inadequate flood prevention and mitigation measures were
ignored ahead of last week’s catastrophic flooding, says a Vancouver-based flood
management consulting firm.

In a report earlier this year, Ebbwater Consulting warned the “current model for
flood risk governance in B.C. is broken,” and advised the province to take a
more proactive approach.

That builds on years of concern about more than 1,100 kilometres of sporadically
maintained dikes across the province, said the firm’s principal and founding
engineer Tamsin Lyle.

“For the last 20 to 30 years we’ve been presenting this information, providing
updates on what we think it would cost if there was a large flood in the Fraser
Valley or elsewhere in the country or in the province,” she told Global News.

“But for the most part that falls on deaf ears until there’s actually an event.”

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Read more: Next 3 storms to hit B.C. expected to be atmospheric rivers

In 1948, dike breaches contributed to one of the most damaging floods in B.C.
history, according to the province.

That flood in the Fraser Valley — parts of which are underwater again this week
— caused several casualties, destroyed about 2,000 homes, and did roughly $210
million in damage.

Dike breaches also played a major role this time, with breaches in Abbotsford,
B.C., contributing to the evacuation and flooding of the Sumas Prairie.

2:04 Some Merritt flood evacuees allowed to return home
Some Merritt flood evacuees allowed to return home

Today there are 600 kilometres of dikes in the Lower Mainland alone, but they’re
managed by a variety of governments, farmers and other authorities or
stakeholders, leading to inconsistent maintenance.

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Some dikes are “orphaned,” meaning they receive no maintenance at all.

“There are many that are substandard and we know that they fail when they’re not
maintained, and they fail even when they are maintained,” said Lyle.

“Dikes are not a good solution for all flood mitigation problems.”

Read more: B.C. floods: Next 10 days could be challenging with another storm
coming, minister says

Ebbwater Consulting has advised the B.C. government to change its flood
management “paradigm” and create a clear and consistent authority structure that
spells out who is responsible for what.

That means a central knowledge hub within the provincial government that
collaborates with Ottawa and develops best practices across the province, and
regional hubs that focus on specific watersheds and support underserved
communities, according to its 2021 report.

“In order to enable this big change, we also need to change how we govern the
problem, to manage the fact that it is a classic, wicked and systemic problem,”
Lyle explained.

2:46 CP Rail reopens key line between Vancouver and Kamloops after extreme
weather disaster
CP Rail reopens key line between Vancouver and Kamloops after extreme weather
disaster

British Columbia’s approach to flood management is a reflection of the “1950s
era of big engineering,” said Lyle, and there are now “many other solutions” the
province should consider.

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Those include building more flood-resilient homes without drywall or carpeting,
she said, changing land-use patterns, and taking critical infrastructure and
vulnerable people out of possible paths of destruction.

Read more: B.C. floods: New video shows Abbotsford dairy farm under 8 feet of
water

“It’s going to cost billions of dollars to at least get us back to the
functional state of being,” said Lyle.

“It definitely is an urgent thing that we need to be thinking about in terms of
planning, but I don’t think we should be acting right away while we’re all
emotional and miserable, because we’re going to make poor choices at this
point.”

Three new atmospheric rivers are forecasted to hit the province between
Wednesday night and next Tuesday, and Environment Canada has warned they could
worsen the existing flooding conditions.

© 2021 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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BC Flooding tagFlood Prevention tagbc flood latest tagEmergency Managment tagBC
flood impact tagBC flood management tagBC flood plains tagEbbwater Consulting
tagEmergence preparedness tag Click to see more tags+5
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