{"id":66416,"date":"2015-12-06T21:44:15","date_gmt":"2015-12-07T02:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=66416"},"modified":"2015-12-06T21:44:15","modified_gmt":"2015-12-07T02:44:15","slug":"flooding-prompts-b-c-first-nation-community-to-declare-state-of-emergency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/12\/06\/flooding-prompts-b-c-first-nation-community-to-declare-state-of-emergency\/","title":{"rendered":"Flooding prompts B.C. First Nation community to declare state of emergency"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Aerial<\/a>
Aerial view of central Port Alberni showing the Somass entering the Alberni Inlet.
(Photo from Wikipedia<\/a>\/ Kevstan<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PORT ALBERNI, B.C\u2014A First Nations community on Vancouver Island has declared a state of emergency as rising water levels threaten to flood as many as two dozen homes.<\/p>\n

Tseshaht Chief Councillor Hugh Braker said sandbagging operations began Sunday afternoon along the Somass River, which has swollen after severe rain.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously the river is full. It can’t hold anymore water,\u201d said Braker. \u201cRather than wait we have begun to prepare now for the flood.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tseshaht is located just west of Port Alberni.<\/p>\n

So far the flooding has been minor, but declaring a state of emergency allows the Tseshaht Council to pre-emptively commit resources toward flood prevention measures, said Braker.<\/p>\n

Heavy rain is predicted to continue until Monday morning, followed by two more storms forecast to hit the Island over the coming week.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can’t wait to the last minute,\u201d said Braker, adding the state of emergency will remain in place until at least Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may start evacuating homes tomorrow if the water comes up high enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The B.C. River Forecast Centre issued a release on Sunday downgrading a flood-watch warning in the Port Alberni area to a high streamflow advisory, saying water levels in the Somass River were expected to level off by Monday.<\/p>\n

But the release added the river is expected to rise later in the week due to the forecast storms, with a 24-hour rainfall prediction of up to 70 millimetres from Tuesday to Thursday.<\/p>\n

About 40 residents attended an emergency meeting Sunday evening for an update on the weather and to learn how they can protect their property.<\/p>\n

Tseshaht is no stranger to flooding. A year ago to the day, heavy rains led the band council to declare a state of emergency and evacuate several homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the biggest flood in my memory. I’m over 60 years old and I’ve lived beside this river all my life,\u201d said Braker.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are anticipating that this year has the potential to be just as bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described the mood in the community as \u201cvery tense.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PORT ALBERNI, B.C\u2014A First Nations community on Vancouver Island has declared a state of emergency as rising water levels threaten …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":66417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16,9072],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-66416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","category-weather","tag-original","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}