Delta braces for floods; Island should be spared

GORDON HOEKSTRA , Vancouver Sun / Times Colonist
December 16, 2012

VANCOUVER — The Corporation of Delta issued a flood warning for early Monday at Tsawwassen Beach and Westham Island.

Waterfront areas along the Tsawwassen First Nation may also have been at risk.

The combination of an extreme high tide between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m. and strong northwesterly winds were expected to create a storm surge, putting low-lying areas at risk in Delta.

Environment Canada said no similar warning has been issued for Vancouver Island.

Jack Zellweger, who owns a farm on Westham Island, said there was not much he could do but to wait out the high tide and storm.

His farmland is protected by dikes built by the Corporation of Delta, and he was not planning on doing any sandbagging, he said.

He would like to see the dike raised because when water does crest the dike it damages his farmland.

“They’ve improved the dikes, but they are still not high enough,” he said Sunday afternoon.

Delta’s emergency operations centre was ready to be activated early Monday morning if needed.

“If it’s necessary, we will be deploying crews to do whatever we can do to alleviate any flooding that may occur,” Delta chief administrative officer George Harvie said Sunday.

Delta has provided sand bags for waterfront residents who wished to shore up their properties in preparation of the high water.

Delta had been expecting the storm surge to create problems in the residential areas of Boundary Bay and Beach Grove, but Harvie said updated forecasts expect the high winds to hit the area at low tide, decreasing the risk of flooding.

Harvie said that sand bags have already been put up in Boundary Bay and Beach Grove to protect low-lying areas.

B.C. Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said they believe there is diminished risk of problems at the Tsawwassen ferry terminal because the winds are expected to hit at low tide.

“We are certainly on watch at Tsawwassen but at this point it’s not [expected to be] as bad as predicted,” she said Sunday.

On Saturday, severe weather caused B.C. Ferries to cancel several sailings.

Although ferry service out of Departure Bay and Horseshoe Bay had resumed by the afternoon, the cancellations caused traffic to be backed up at the terminals.

B.C. Ferries also had a separate incident that delayed traffic.

The company said the 3 p.m. sailing to Swartz Bay from Tsawwassen was delayed about 25 minutes after ferries staff sent a rescue boat to help four people on board a sailboat that had sprung a leak and was sinking near the Tsawwassen terminal.

All four adults that were on board the 37-foot vessel were unharmed and safely taken to shore and the boat was towed to a dock at the terminal, according to the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Victoria.

— With a file by Derek Spalding of the Times Colonist