Nechako Icejam Grows By The Minute

Tuesday, January 29, 2008 04:32 PM

Prince George, B.C.- An aerial tour of the head of the Nechako River icejam, gave city emergency officials a first-hand look at how quickly frazil ice is piling up....

The mass of soft ice jamming the river is now estimated to span approximately 22-kilometres -- from the river’s confluence with the Fraser in the east, to beyond Miworth in the west, but it’s expanding at a rapid rate.

City Liaison Officer, Kevin Brown, says, "It was growing by approximately 400-metres every 30-minutes or so, earlier today."

City Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) official Marco Fornari was given a helicopter tour of the area and witnessed the build-up, during his time overhead. Large chunks of soft ice generated by the recent coldsnap are floating downstream to join the jam.

Brown says, so far, the ever-lengthening mass of ice isn’t posing any new problems.

Residents in the Miworth area have not been affected.

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Posted on Tuesday, January 29, 2008 04:32 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 29 2008 7:20 PM

Wow!...if that let's go all at once, it ain't gonna be pretty!
Head for high ground!

Posted by: heidi1555 on January 29 2008 7:25 PM

Isn't there a place down the Fraser where the Amphibex could go to get it going...I know it's going home which is sad but just curious.

Posted by: Palopu on January 29 2008 8:00 PM

Heidi5555 I suspect the Fraser is frozen all the way to Quesnel. As long as the water continues to flow under the ice there is no problem, however if it jams, especially on the Nechako then it will find another route, and thats when the flooding begins.

Posted by: northman on January 29 2008 8:43 PM

Just a thought that i will probably get shot down for... If they dont dredge in the summer to get some depth in the channel so the ice doesnt hang up anymore, why dont they increase the volume out of the skins spillway to raise the water and current to..1)Increase the water depth so less hang up and jamming.. 2)To give the water more velocity to break up minor jam ups so it flushes the channel out. Just a thought.. Cheers

Posted by: seamutt on January 29 2008 9:35 PM

Why are they calling this an ice jam? Sure the ice is piling up but I don't think its damming the river right know. I have seen this happen just about every winter. How about the ice on the Fraser, is that a jam? Why was there flooding this year and not every year?

Posted by: Andyfreeze on January 29 2008 9:43 PM

I was wondering the same thing northman.
Seems to make sense to me.
More volume and depth may just put a bit of lift on the ice pack and enable some of it to move?
But then,I guess if it doesn't move, we could also have one hell of mess and it may just be a too hard to control.

Posted by: bird on January 29 2008 9:52 PM

i wonder why is this huge volume of water in the nechako..what's happening at the headwaters?

Posted by: bird on January 29 2008 9:52 PM

i wonder why is this huge volume of water in the nechako..what's happening at the headwaters?

Posted by: Eagleone on January 29 2008 10:19 PM

Its interesting to see how the ice on the river has dropped 15 feet in spots like at Wilson Park and yet not all the ice dropped and some has moved like a glacier forming huge mounds that stick out of the river some 20 feet. Hard to imagine the actual water flow has dropped 15 feet, so that means all that held it up was pressure from dammed up water down stream. Quite incredible when one thinks how much all that water must weigh....