Interesting times we live in. Hopefully this will not become a pissing match of who is in charge, the City or the people in the city. But, it might be good to find out one of these days.

Is anyone taking ANY responsibility for the fact that they CHOOSE to live and/or operate on a flood plain? I suppose in our current day and age of "it's someone else's fault" that would be outrageous.

John Brink for Mayor?

Flood VICTIMS Coalition.

That says it all.

NMG ...

If you are unaware of where the flood plain is, you can go to the city site and look at pg map, put the flood plain overlay on as well as teh 2006 aerial photogrammetry and you might be surprised.

Everything donwntown off first avenue is on the plain for starters ... the whole works right up to the river. All train traffic coming from the port goes trhiough the flood plain.

Even the new regional district offices are built on the flood plain. The entire section east of Queensway is on the flood plain. City Hall is on the flod plain. Civic cetnre main floor is below the flood plain......

SOrt of like the OCP ... the city is for encouraging business downtown, but every time someone wants to build in suburbia ... sure .... go ahead.

Either one moves this stuff, or protects it.

This, btw, is not the only city like that.

In Cologne they actually built a symphony hall which is entirely below the flood plain. It is built like the hull of a ship. It could float, except that instead of compression footings, it also has tension footings just like boat anchors.

There is nothing extraordinary about flood plains from my point of view. You either decide to avoid them, or you build on them to make sure that you are protected when it does flood.

So far, this city has done neither except in very few circumstances. There is a huge need for an awareness program as well as facilities improvement.







is on the flood plain .... alin layere on

oops... :-)

My home is ABOVE the 200 year flood plain, and I have been severely affected by groundwater.

Good points NMG. It is my understanding that their are countries that are entirely buld well below sealevel on the bottem of the sea with dikes around it.!!!!! I allways thought that if the city issues building permits and collects taxes ....thy have a obligation to protect regardless of were anybody thinks the flood level maybe.
On the other hand what do I know

"If you are unaware of where the flood plain is, you can go to the city site and look at pg map, put the flood plain overlay on as well as teh 2006 aerial photogrammetry and you might be surprised.

Everything donwntown off first avenue is on the plain for starters"

Oh I'm quite aware of the how far the flood plain spreads, however, I think there is a rather significant difference between building at the City Hall site and building at a location that is literally within a stones throw distance of the river.

Obviously measures should be taken to reduce the impact of flooding and we should look at ways to reduce the likelyhood of future such occurences. Nobody is debating that.

If it were only 20 homes with wet basements, people wouldn't give 2 cents about the problem. Because it is impacting a few large businesses, now all of a sudden it's turned into a disaster of epic proportions. The fact remains, it is not impacting the vast majority of people or infrastructure in the City. I would submit that this entire situation comes down to a whole pile of self interest. It's justified and I completely understand the position, however, I don't think it's wise to effectively let such self interest drive the decisions that are made to deal with the problem.

"It is impacting a few large businesses"

I might add they have the attention of the media.................

But they are BESIDE the river................ I wonder if their business model would work in the BCR site or elsewhere. Would the costs to operate the same be higher or lower. I suspect that the costs would be higher. Have they not had a competitve advantage by virtue of being closer to the sources of supply, particularly Brink.

As NMG points out they are on the flood plain....or more presicely BESIDE the Nechako River. Have you been in the offices of Global......their offices have a gorgeous view of the river...and have for many decades. Has no one there ever thought of relocating, because they are BESIDE the river......
No, lets just keep bringing in the cheese until the office flood. Then we will think about it..................

Yeh, right!!!!!!!

As

I wonder if the low price of lumber has any bearing how quickly Brink wants to get his mill up and running again. I heard they were losing money every day the mill runs with lumber prices so low. Great time to direct the focus on somebody else for the reason the mill is shut down. Chester

I couldn't agree with Chester anymore. "Great time to direct the focus on somebody else"

Looks to me that John is trying to pick up a little money out of the Provincial Emergency Program himself to help support the soaring lumber prices. Although I could be wrong, but why a lawsuit against the city and PEP? I think he is on the right track organizing a committee to prevent future floods, but a lawsuit is kinda stinky.