Years of warnings about poor flood plans ignored prior to B.C. floods, says consulting firm
Global News
A Vancouver-based flood management consulting firm says years of warnings about the risks of floods and ailing dikes have been "largely ignored" in B.C.
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.”
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.