B.C.’s River Forecast Centre upgraded flood watches to warnings Wednesday, including in the Pemberton Valley, after heavy rain brought more than 200 millimetres in some areas.
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B.C.’s River Forecast Centre upgraded flood watches to flood warnings on Wednesday for areas including the Pemberton Valley, Howe Sound, Sea to Sky and the North Shore of Metro Vancouver after intense rainfall.
The rainfall followed several atmospheric rivers battering the south coast. The drenching included more than 200 millimetres of rain in some locations in the Pemberton Valley over a 24-hour period.
In the Village of Pemberton, an evacuation order issued Wednesday afternoon covers properties on Airport Road, including the community’s airport, waste water treatment facility, wildland fire management base and a public golf course. The order said “All persons within the affected area are required to leave immediately and follow the directions of emergency personnel,” citing “immediate danger to life safety caused by flooding.”
The community, about 160 kilometres north of Vancouver, said on social media that flooding occurred around One Mile Lake, including sections of trail, and urged residents to stay clear of flooded areas and flowing water.
Gregory Whittaker, who lives near Pemberton Meadows, said he was up much of the night listening to heavy rain and watching Miller Creek, which converges with the Lillooet River northwest of Pemberton. He said the creek was “getting angry” and later described videos he shot showing roaring, white-water conditions.
Whittaker said he went out on a rainy Remembrance Day hike to check creek levels despite the warnings, adding that he lives above the floodplain and is generally not concerned about his property flooding, though he acknowledged conditions could change overnight. Environment Canada meteorologist Jennifer Hay said 24-hour rainfall reached 214 millimetres in Port Mellon, about 50 kilometres northwest of Vancouver, by Wednesday morning.
Hay said Howe Sound had received 79 millimetres and West Vancouver Island–Kennedy Lake nearly 140 millimetres, and she said the system was still moving across the coast with many areas continuing to get rain. She also said a rainfall warning for the Vancouver and Fraser Valley regions had been dropped but could be reissued with another system.
The River Forecast Centre said rivers in the South Coast region were “rising rapidly,” with the Stawamus, Clowhom and Squamish rivers and Tofino Creek all showing high flow rates. Orange rainfall warnings for Howe Sound and the Sea to Sky regions remained in place, and the weather office warned central B.C. residents to expect damaging winds from a “strong and slow-moving” system, with gusts reaching around 100 kilometres an hour in some areas, along with likely utility outages and difficult driving due to heavy rain and possible debris.
In its warning, the River Forecast Centre said people should continue to stay away from river banks because the fast flow of water increases the risk of bank instability. “Continued rises in river levels are expected into Thursday in response to additional rainfall,” the centre said.
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