Sunday, December 16, 2012

Vancouver Region Bracing for Storm Surge, King Tides and Flooding.

The next couple of days pose a serious flooding threat to the Lower Mainland, particularly Vancouver's low-lying suburbs.

Sunday and Monday are expected to see the strongest of the seasonal "king tides", with levels over 5 metres above low tide.
But Oceanographer Scott Tinis says a storm surge will bring that several feet higher.

"Places such as Boundary Bay are particularly susceptible to not only the raising sea levels but the wind waves. So low-lying areas, especially near river deltas , may see some localized flooding."

Tinis says the last time we saw ocean levels this high was during the 1982 El Nino storm season.

That storm surge is also expected to bring some flooding to areas of Delta.

Emergency centre director George Harvie says crews will be busy before the extremely high tide hits at around 9 Monday morning.


Update:  At first it seemed like a false alarm but now that seems to have been wishful thinking.  Municipal crews are said to be sandbagging furiously and the surge is expected on this evening's high tide.

 

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