One year after disastrous B.C. flooding, fear of new climate disasters loom
When a dike was breached and floodwaters started to flow across British Columbia’s Sumas Prairie a year ago, poultry farmer Corry Spitters said all he could do was let nature take its course.
The record rains brought by an atmospheric river last November swamped southwest B.C., inundated farmland, washed out major highways and railways and forced thousands to flee. Climate scientist Francis Zwiers, director of the University of Victoria’s Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium, said the group produced a study this year that concluded human-induced climate change had increased the probability of such an event by up to 50 per cent.
“It’s really hard to get reliable answers out of the gauges because typically when there’s a heavy rainfall event, the gauge becomes inaccurate,” he said in an interview. “It, in essence, becomes damaged by the extreme stream flow that’s produced.” “The particular atmospheric river that occurred was aligned with the Fraser Valley in a way that allowed moisture to penetrate relatively deeply into southwestern B.C.,” he said.Flood mitigation crucial to preventing future disasters: Senate report on B.C.’s 2021 floods
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