Most people across the land will have seen the big storm that hit Southern BC.

 All of us are proud of the huge effort put in by those charged with cleaning up the mess. But – and all Canadian centres take note – what this storm tells us is thank God it wasn’t a real catastrophe like a big earthquake of a serious terrorist attack.

This "catastrophe", after all, involved 100k winds and 100 millimetres of rain.

Yet nearly 5 days later some 75,000 homes were without power often because Hydro lines were knocked down by trees that should have been cut down long ago.

The real shocker – and do you have a river near you? – was that the dykes along the Fraser were inadequate to keep much of the Fraser Valley from flooding.

Now, what if this storm came in the June run-off? There would be a death toll of immense proportions. And what if there was an earthquake too? This storm proved that the Lower Mainland of British Columbia is simply not prepared for bad things to happen.

How’re you doing on your river?