The Nechako River remains a dangerous location with a partial cover of ice, and open channels in some areas. Photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. – Crews with the City of Prince George and Fire Rescue Services say regular patrols of the Nechako River to the confluence with the Fraser   indicate there has been no change in the stability of the situation over the past two days.

City Communications Officer Michael Kellett says “the most recent update I received was that at all the checking stations along the Nechako and down to the confluence it’s all stable, steady as she goes and there’s also these open water channels so the water is finding somewhere to go, which is what you want.  So there’s no real change in that way and definitely not anything with the negative to the situation.”

Kellett says “the EOC (Emergency Operations Centre) is still at Level 1, that hasn’t changed and, as we said Friday, we’ll have a security firm down at the river patrolling between 6 o’clock tonight and noon tomorrow, just basically running up and down from the start of the Heritage River Trail to the end of the park.  Because, like we’ve seen, some folks have gone down there and been kind of horsing around on the ice, which is really not advisable.”

Repeating earlier advisories, Cottonwood Island Park and the Heritage River Trail, from the Cameron Street Bridge to Kiwanis Park, are closed to the public until further notice.

Some cooler temperatures, with lows in the high teens and low 20s, are forecast for the coming week but Kellett says that is not causing concern.  “Not really because since the start of the event we’ve seen a real range of temperatures.  Hard to forget those few weeks ago when it was so cold, and then it went up to almost zero.  There hasn’t really been any negative change from that.”

“What I’m told is if it gets super-cold it cold have actual benefits to a situation like this and there could also be possible negatives.  If it gets warm, that can have it’s own positives and negatives.  So the monitoring is the key right now and just making sure we’re aware if mother nature decides to have a grunt or something.”

“So things are remaining stable, there’s no increase in the height of the ice or the flow of the water.  It seems, at least for the last week or so, to have reached some sort of equilibrium, which we’re taking as a positive.”