District of North Vancouver crews continue to clean up debris, repair infrastructure and assess damage caused by the intense atmospheric river rainstorm that directly hit the North Shore over the weekend. In a press release, District of North Vancouver said no weather event in recent years has brought this much rainfall.
The storm brought more than twice as much rain as the October 2014 rainstorm, which brought water and debris down Fromme Street, flooding homes and the old Argyle Secondary School, with up to 170 mm of rainfall recorded at the Hastings Creek station over 72 hours.
It also surpassed the November 2021 atmospheric river event, which caused damaging floods in Abbotsford and throughout the Fraser Valley and drenched North Vancouver, with the North Vancouver Grouse Mountain station reporting up to 150 mm of rainfall over 72 hours. By comparison, the atmospheric river event in North Vancouver last weekend dumped up to 344 mm of rainfall, recorded at our Hastings Creek station.
DNV said its crews proactively clear catch basins and culverts before storms hit. However, given the intensity of this rainfall during this latest atmospheric storm, it was more than the stormwater systems could handle in some cases.
“With that significant amount of rainfall in such a short period, unfortunately, some flooding is unavoidable,” says Peter Cohen, General Manager, Engineering Infrastructure Services, who also shared duties as Operations Director at the tri-municipal Emergency Operations Centre during the rainstorm. “Our teams are focusing on triaging immediate life safety storm-related issues, emergency repairs, debris removal and assessing the full extent of the damage. Further assessments may be needed to determine whether any infrastructure changes are warranted.”
No serious injuries to residents or staff were reported.
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