Ice Jam Breaks

Saturday, December 15, 2007 08:22 PM

Prince George, B.C. - It would appear the ice jam on the Nechako River has broken .

Around 6:15 this evening, there was a surge in water, and the river climbed about 4 feet . It came up fast enough to spill into the new area at the west end of McAloney Road where EXCEL Transport had moved its trucks. The water was up, and then, as if someone pulled the plug in a bath tub, the water level plunged by about 8 feet.

The Nechako had found a new channel through the park near the Fraser River, and water was boiling under the foot bridge.

There are still concerns about a blockage at the River Road Boat launch, as water rushed across the road and flooded Lakeland Mills parking lot.

The ice jam and resulting flood has resulted in the temporary loss of more than a thousand jobs, and the evacuation of 50 families from their homes.

The Emergency Response Crews continue to monitor the situation, the state of local emergency remains in effect.

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Posted on Saturday, December 15, 2007 08:22 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Parrothead on December 15 2007 9:11 PM

Cautionary note to those downstream: *INCOMING*

Posted by: owl on December 15 2007 9:18 PM

So, have they been cutting a new channel at the south shore, or did the water simply find a new low spot by itself.

With that much of a rise, and then that much of a fall in a relatively short time, it is easy to see how dangerous the entire situation actually is. Let us hope, since that is about all we can do, that ice from up river does not find that channel in large nough numbers or pieces to close it again.

Posted by: NMG on December 15 2007 10:04 PM

I wonder if the pressure that was building up was just enough to finally blow a path through?

Regardless of what caused it to go, it's a good reminder of how powerful Mother Nature can be and why caution is not necessarily a bad thing when dealing with her. If people were working near the main channel at that time, this could have turned into a recovery effort, that's if the bodies were ever found.

Hopefully this is good news. Time will tell.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on December 15 2007 10:08 PM

Right on! Glad to see it,hopefully the worst is over!

Posted by: lmorg on December 16 2007 3:08 AM

the worst is not over. Its just like pouring some water over ice cubes, eventually a channel will cut through, but all that is needed is more ice and the new channels formed by the paths of least resistance will flood again. The bulk of the ice is what is needed to be broken up.

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on December 16 2007 7:57 AM

"..So, have they been cutting a new channel at the south shore, or.."

Oh sure, eight people in a river boat have been running up and down the river pulling V plows and the water started really flowing. HeeHee!

Or was it that helicopter that was hovering out over the ice? It must have pushed the ice down and opened a channel. Whee!

Or, I heard if you stare hard at the ice long enough it will suddenly break up and start moving.

I'll go with the last one.

Posted by: Palopu on December 16 2007 9:36 AM

Alcan will continue to release the same amount of water into the Nechako until sometime in February. We are going to get more cold weather between now and then, and therefore we could get the same situation all over again. I suspect that the warmer weather had a lot to do with the break through this time, however if it happens again during severe cold weather, look out.

Posted by: owl on December 16 2007 9:58 AM

I understand you have little engineering background YDPC so I won't even go there other than to say that is waht they do in other places when confronted with this problem - they work near the shore and even from the shore with heavy equipment from cranes to backhoes. They also use such tools as high pressure hoses to pump water from the river and jet the ice pieces to break them apart.

This is what they used to do, but we all know that the wise people on here have said that DFO would not allow dynamite .... bet you if DFO were asked they would not say no ... otherwise they would be liable for the damages and the feds, or the province, would not like to be responsible for damages to save a bit of fish habitat. I suspect more of that gets damaged by ice scouring the river bottom than a machine would ever be able to accomplish.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9500E0D8153BEF34BC4F52DFB566838E669FDE&oref=slogin

Posted by: YamaDooPolCat on December 16 2007 3:58 PM

Owl, I understand your lack of engineering background, experience with ice jams or common sense, has made you over confident of man's ability to control nature. You grew up very responsible, but missed lots of good stuff.

Therefore, you are going to have to start over Owl. You will have to start with the sand box, and we have to see how you do there before we move you on to mud pies and 7 11 Slushies. Heehee!

And if you are a good boy, in the spring you can hold the hose for the city boys when they clear culverts this spring. That way you can see how long it takes to clear a 16" culvert of ice. Be good now.

Posted by: kevin1006 on December 16 2007 6:19 PM

As usual everyone is wrong.

Humans, being arrogant, self obsessed creeps still believe that we can force nature to conform to our will. We spin our wheels demanding to nature that she bend to our will and we'll throw millions and millions of dollars in an attempt to force the point. Then she laughs at us by showing us just how wrong we are. Do we get the point? Of course not. Humans are as stupid as a stick... the current world situation proves it without a doubt.

When wisdom rules - if ever - we'll be a species that accepts that it is nature that rules and we're just along for the ride. When, and if, that day arrives we will realize that it is us that must adapt to her and not the nonsense taking place now.

When you build your cities next to rivers you're going to get situations like the current one. I think my cat could figure that out better than the current crop of two legs running around.

Posted by: lmorg on December 16 2007 11:35 PM

youre wrong kevin, I was right!