All 275 people were expected to be rescued by the end of Monday, said B.C. Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth, adding that there had been no reported fatalities. The Agassiz fire department was credited with saving 12 people Sunday night in “treacherous conditions,” as their vehicles filled with debris and water.
Extreme rain swamped rivers and farmland across southern B.C. and triggered mudslides that blocked every major highway connecting the Lower Mainland to the rest of the country in November 2021. This is a timeline of the first week of the crisis.
“It got very cold the day we got there, it got down to like single digits and ice came out of the mountains and rivers and sloughs everywhere,” said Allyn Long, general manager of Alaska Logistics.
A tornado watch was issued around 5:30 p.m. and rescinded less than an hour later, but the storm caused considerable damage on the University of British Columbia campus. The school is located on a peninsula not far from the airport.
A storm that hit Southcentral Alaska on Saturday night led to flooding in Girdwood, a landslide on the Sterling Highway and left thousands of homes without power throughout the region on Sunday morning. More than a foot of rain fell in Girdwood by Sunday.
“The ice was so thick flowing down the river. It was forming so fast. It was freezing so fast. Just amazing. I’d never seen anything like that," one of the hunters, Rex Nick, said.
Strong winds whipped across Ketchikan Thursday evening and Friday morning, and a strong morning gust snapped power lines and severed Ketchikan’s connection to the Swan Lake hydropower reservoir.
"This year we had a lot more rain than other years, we used to be able to get on our ATVs and travel 10-12 miles upriver. I haven't seen or heard of anyone using ATVs to travel upriver this year. I think the breakthrough channel has a lot to do with us not being able to travel on ATVs. I see a lot of my favorite ATV fishing spots washed away from the highwater."
A second glacial outburst flood began in the eastern Skaftá ice cauldron under Vatnajökull glacier late Saturday evening, RÚV reports. This flood follows a smaller one that originated in the western Skaftá ice cauldron and is expected to do as much damage to local communities and farmland as the last glacial outburst flood on the Skaftá river in 2018.
The mammoth storm sparked torrential rain, flash floods and tornadoes that pummeled the region.
Rescuers in boats, helicopters and high-water trucks brought hundreds of people trapped by Hurricane Ida's floodwaters to safety Monday and utility repair crews rushed in, after the furious storm swamped the Louisiana coast and ravaged the electrical grid in the stifling, late-summer heat.
A handful of fires burning east of Humboldt continued to grow overnight with minimal containment, bringing air quality and travel impacts. Parts of State Route 36 have reopened to controlled traffic. Overall hot, dry conditions are expected to complicate fire suppression efforts.
Unusual high water all summer in Noatak, causing massive erosion towards the airport and old buried landfill, exposing old trash into the river.
After significant rain and high water from the Kobuk River the Native Village of Kobuk is now flooded.
Alaska transportation officials believe there’s a low risk that anyone could be harmed in an outburst, but they say they’re acting swiftly to prevent another road closure.
According to police sources, flow in the region’s swollen rivers dropped slightly overnight, but that this is likely explained because the air temperature usually drops overnight. Flow is expected to increase again today.
Westfall thanked his training with the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association to help him maximize his odds for survival.
Heavy rainfall caused the Quibá river to overflow in the village of Guineales, municipality of Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán in Sololá department.
The remote community of roughly 600 people has been on flood watch for about a week and is the latest of several communities in the Northwest Territories to be affected by historic flooding on the Mackenzie River, caused by the spring breakup.
An ice jam caused by warming spring temperatures near the village of Buckland has left most of the town underwater and cut off access to the airport road. Residents of the village of about 400 people are preparing to evacuate by boat if water levels continue to rise.
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