Clean-up crews hit the ground as North Vancouver digs out from destructive storm

An evacuation order remained in place for six homes in North Vancouver’s Deep Cove neighbourhood on Tuesday, as clean-up crews hit the ground following a destructive storm.

The season’s first atmospheric river dumped an estimated 340 mm of rain on the community over the course of three days, overwhelming creeks and causing debris flows into residential properties.

Thankfully no one was hurt in the area, but the officials have confirmed three deaths related to the storm in other parts of the province.

3:21 Major cleanup after flood damage on North Shore

District of North Vancouver emergency operations centre director and general manager of engineering Peter Cohen said crews are focused on shoring up private infrastructure like retaining walls and culvers that still pose a life-safety risk.

“Today they have started to mobilize some equipment. Really what we are trying to find is a way to get proper water flow from Panorama Drive down to the outlet at the water,” he said.

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“Some of the work they are also doing is removing some of the debris deposit that happened from that substantial overflow.”

District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little said the damage was another reminder about the need to prepare for the impacts of climate change.

He compared the weekend’s flooding to a storm in 2005 that delivered 275 mm of rain over a five-day period.

2:07 Sinkholes, debris and damage in North Vancouver neighbourhood following storm

“Under the old way of calculating the frequency of storms, this is a one-in-100-year event, but when you actually do the math on what we are expecting moving forward, it is more like what we should expect every 20, 25 years,” Little said.

“So we are going to have to re-look at our infrastructure in order to be able to manage these extreme weather events.”

Little said the municipality remains focused on assessing damage, and won’t rescind the local state of emergency and evacuation orders in Deep Cove until the area is deemed safe.

With meteorologists forecasting a shift to a La Nina climate pattern, that could deliver a high precipitation winter, he said, adding the municipality will have to be prepared, and pre-position equipment to respond to potential future heavy rain events.

“It’s definitely eye-opening,” he said.