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Time has finally come.....


lumberjacksgurl

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Well you all know that I have been dealing with potential flooding. I wish I had photos to upload today, but perhaps once we get everything settled I can post some.

We have officially gone on Evacuation Alert now. THe portable dykes that have been built recently are holding, well actually there has been a couple of failures but they have been repaired. This is new technology that has not been tested in a flood. THere is a 50/50 chance of them holding/failing. I am one of 139 houses currently on alert with another 50 possible soon.

We had to have loaders and heavy equipment to my house the night before last to deal with our catch basin ( which had been plugged) The force of the river eroded the plug and had enough back pressure that the river was actually flowing into my yard. We were lucky that I noticed it happened as it was late at night. THe consequences if left to morning would have meant several houses would have had overland flooding.

SO far no houses have been lost. A couple of houses have been lifted and moved out. Many have basements of water from seepage of the ground water levels rising and hydrostatic pressure.

I am just getting all the suitcases packed etc and then we are all ready. We had already cleared out the basement and crawlspaces. We will have several items in the stock trailer we have that will be ready for long term living.

We will have to send the kids away soon. THat will be tough as they will both be in different places over 1000 km apart, but it will make life easier for hubby and I to get business of recovery done.

The uniqueness of this situation is that as you know, it has been going on for months already and when evacuated, we have to plan for 2 months of evacuation. VEry different to do that than the typical 72 hour preparation plans. One thing being planned is to have individual families live in a classroom of a school. A home away from We are trying to stay away from the mass lodging as it will be too long.

SO I will check in when I am able and hope to get some photos up ina few days. Cross your fingers for everyone here that the rain subsides and theat the impact is as minimal as possible please :)

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It's the Nechako River that runs through Vanderhoof, B.C.

Here's some photos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/retiredwindowwasher/

It seems that the flood alerts have been removed on the other river areas in the British Columbia Northwest, except for the Nechako. The Skeena and Fraser levels both seem to have dropped. At least that's the last post I've heard from B.C. Environment. I'm in Alberta (province immediately east of B.C.)

-Susanne

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I just looked up Vanderhoof, BC, on Google Earth. That's one snakey river. It looks as if flooding is its way of life. Our prayers are with Michelle's family and the others who are in its path.

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I don't think the flooding is due to rain. Isn't it from melting of the snowpack? I think that is what Michelle was telling me earlier in the year. And I found this link from an article I read.

http://www.canada.com/topics/entertainment...ad3&k=67893

But Talstra warned flooding would be a continual concern for the city at least until the end of the month as the snowpack — which was at least 50 per cent higher than normal this year — continues to melt.

Maybe it's a mixture of both. Let me know if I have this wrong.

Michelle, Our prayers are with you and all of the families up there.

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Here are a few photos of some of the flooding. http://lumberjacksgurl.spaces.live.com They are not very good but a start. NOne of the park photos should have water in them.

If you use facebook, serch Vanderhoof and the great flood of 2007 for some more photos.

I will try to get some more up as I have time and capability. Remember this is a controlled river, not a typical flooding event that is uncontrollable. We have a dam above us and this is being done consciously!!!!

Thanks for the well wishes.........will keep you updated !!!

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Suzy is partially right. We have incredible snowpack, in excess of 200% of the average for the year, and at June 4 we had more snow still than the historical average for ANY month in ANY year!!! :) ...JUNE people!!!! This is JUNE now not FEB!! In fact, in one area, it snowed a further 17 FEET last week!!!!!.....need I say it...JUNE OMG

That translates to a whole lot more water down our way yet to come. The resevoir that holds all the water is now FULL, basically what goes in must come out so that the dam will survive. This resevoir is 25,000 square KMs.

The clips that Suzy quoted were from a few weeks ago, a little west of me. That was purely a melting situation while ours is a controlled river.....hmmmm always thought control was to mitigate problems not cause them :cheer:...<scratching head>

I will look for a few more links, but if you google Vanderhoof in the news section you should come up with more.

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hey, lumber, thank you for the updates.

oh, this is AWFUL!! am thinking of you and wishing you well, :flowers: hope you all are staying dry and safe.

hugs to you, izzy, alex and DH,

newt

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Michelle, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. It is awful having your house damaged by water. I remember as a kid, in Edmonton, it rained for days on end and our basement flooded. It was awful!!

Take care!!

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And we are still desparately in need of water, there have been burning bans and now water rationing has gone into effect in the counties to the west of us. Best wishes & lots of prayers for y'all's safety in this situation.

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Dear Michelle,

I can't imagine how terrible this must be for you and your family. To have to leave your home and not know what is going to happen to it is a terrible situation. Perhaps everyone's prayers will be answered and you won't have to.

Please stay safe and take care. We are thinking of you,

Shirley

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Well I finally have some downtime today to give a quick update.

We took water in the house this afternoon. We have had to dispose of all the carperts and underlay as we have water comming in all over the basement and crawlspace.

We have the pumps set up with hose right back to the river, but will continue to have ground water comming on for the duration now I believe. THe river is much higher than the bottom of the basement and we have reached saturation point now.

The outflow pipe also backed up with river water into our yard again today. We had the excavator in the front yard again working to stem that problem.

They had a call out for volunteers all day to day for sandbagging. THe sewage lagoon was in jeopardy. Hundreds of people showed up and they are still working from the sound of things, the noise carries over here.

THe river has continued to rise, but I have no new photos today. So despite the events of today, it was almost a relief, we have bneen waiting for a long time for the water to come in (weeks). Now that it is here, we can deal with it. Hopefully the pump will beable to keep up with it and we can stay in the house for a little longer barring a break in the dyking again.

I have had to turn the power of to the lower floors of the house, but the essentials still work....hmm...forgot to check the freezer...better do that :flowers: I am on the sundeck to charge the puter with an exterior outlet right now. It will all be about adaptation from here on in LOL

So I hope you are all enjoying this weekend, we had no rain today, one of you must have done a sun dance for me (THANK YOU!!)

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one of you must have done a sun dance for me (THANK YOU!!)
Not so much a sun dance for you as requesting some of that overflow water come to fill a few of our rivers (preferably as rain), instead of threatening all of y'all up there.
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