The mayor of Dawson Creek said water is starting to recede in the flood-ravaged city.
The northeastern B.C. city saw about 120 millimetres of rain, causing serious flooding in the city’s core and its south side. The B.C. River Forecast Centre has issued a flood warning for Chetwynd, Tumbler Ridge, Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.
“[The creek] just exploded,” said Mayor Dale Bumstead. “The flooding that occurred as a result of that was significant.”
All major roads in the city are impassable and some bridges have been washed out, splitting most of the city into two. On Friday morning, 8 Street was open to one lane alternating traffic.
“Any of the highways and roads that connect the city north to south were basically flooded. We lost bridges and culverts,” he said.
The flooding forced the evacuation of 60 houses and many others are also without power. Bumstead said that, fortunately, there were no injuries.
He said the creek crested at around noon on Thursday and officials are optimistic the worst may be behind them.
“You never know if some of that water may still be coming at us from the rural areas and stuff. We believe we’re over the hump,” Bumstead said.
The city’s transit system is not running and the mayor says all of the schools are closed. However, the airport is back up and running.
WATCH: Dawson Creek residents capture scenes of serious flooding in the city
The mayor said the city considered declaring a local state of emergency but decided not to in the end.
“We didn’t have anything of significance that we felt we need to declare a state of emergency … We’re happy with how the community and residents responded,” he said.
Bumstead said evacuated residents will hopefully be allowed to return home on Friday and he expects work will likely begin as well on infrastructure damage assessments as well.
“We’ll begin the process hopefully of assessing damage and what we have for infrastructure damages to bridges, roads, culverts, sidewalks and all that,” he said.
Bumstead said he has not yet spoken with Premier Christy Clark but adds the city will keep the province updated with its progress.
When asked whether the city could have done anything differently in anticipation of flooding, Bumstead said there is only so much that can be done.
“You can plan…but you can never prepare for those significant Mother Nature events that create significant impact on our community.”
The roads with bridges and culverts that have either been washed out or are not safe include:
- 8 Street
- the 10 Street Bridge
- 15 Street Bridge
- the 17 Street culvert
Residents are being asked to stay away from the creek and to stay off the roads if possible.
As of 11:30 a.m., there are approximately 3,500 customers without power in the Peace Region.
BC Hydro lost two distribution feeders in Dawson Creek at 7 a.m. Thursday, causing outages for 3,330 customers. Flooding is expected to have damaged several structures, including at least six distribution poles and that damage will delay efforts to get the power on for everyone. At this time, BC Hydro has not been able to access some areas with damaged equipment because many roads in the area are closed or impassible.
Bumstead says the big issue right now is public safety and he urges everyone to be careful around the water and creek.
The District of Chetwynd has issued a local state of emergency following heavy rains in the area.
Multiple highways are already closed and the Peace Region is cut off from the rest of the province after the only highway was closed by flooding.
The closures are affecting Highways 97, 52 and 29.
“We’ve still got connectivity in terms of getting out of the community, we’ve got four or five major highways leading in and out of Dawson Creek,” says Bumstead.
“But it’s connecting the community.”
It is hoped things will get better by later Thursday afternoon.
Global News meteorologist Mark Madryga said the intense storm that dumped 100 millimetres of rain on Dawson Creek and close to 60 millimetres on Fort St. John is weakening this afternoon.
Further showers are likely into this evening but the worst of the storm is definitely over, Madryga said.
“A drier flow from the northwest accompanied by stiff winds this afternoon will lead to partial clearing later tonight. Some sunshine tomorrow morning in the region will be followed by another band of showers or thundershowers later on Friday and Friday night. However the area will revert quickly to mostly sunny, warmer and dry weather for several days beginning on Saturday.”
WATCH: Jonny Wakefield from the Alaska Highway News joins us via the phone to talk about what he is seeing in the city of Dawson Creek Thursday morning.