WET & WILD: Background, Texada Island flooded by heavy rain, 1973. Left: Bob Briggs observes his garage’s flood-crumpled foundation on Gerrard Street, 1983. Top right, Olga McLeod looks over giant concrete culverts which will solve the flooding problem along Squatter’s Creek, 1983. Right, A railroad at Lois River is washed away by a flood, 1935. Photos courtesy of the Powell River Historical Museum & Archives
Flooding? It can happen here.
W
ith the recent environmental challenges facing lower mainland previously. many communities throughout the province, I In June of 1948, major flooding occurred throughwas curious to find out about past floods in qa- out the entire Fraser Valley, resulting in the evacuthet’s history. Somewhat less susceptible to extreme ation of 16,000 people and over 2,000 homes were flooding, qathet has mostly been a victim of forest destroyed. An initiative from the Board of Trade in fires and earthquakes in terms of natural disasters. Vancouver was set-up, creating a province-wide B.C. That’s not to say we haven’t had them; there are Flood Emergency Fund with a million dollar objective many records of smaller (equivalent to 11 million scale floods in the region. dollars in 2021). One of them occurring in Interestingly, in Powell February of 1935, when River, a Local Committee the Lois River flooded. was formed to handle an This flood caused landemergency drive for the JOËLLE SÉVIGNY slides, disrupted railroad victims of the flood. At tracks, and resulted in a special meeting of the cracks in the penstock cradle at the Lois Lake Dam. Powell River Local 142 and Local 76, which repreIn January of 1973, three consecutive days of heavy sented 1,500 Pulp, Sulphite, and Paper Mill workers, rain caused flooding throughout the region. Hit hard- it was agreed that a day’s pay per worker would be est by the rainfall was Texada Island. Two feet of wa- deducted from payroll, to support the B.C. Flood Reter flooded Andy’s Corner between Gillies Bay and Va- lief Fund. nanda. Some bridges on the highway were damaged There was also a dance at the Lund Community Hall and schools were closed for a few days. to fundraise for the Flood Emergency Fund and an Heavy rain also used to cause flooding problems elementary class even hosted an afternoon tea fundin Westview, with Squatter’s Creek overflowing. The raiser. This is just one example in our history, where creek which runs through Westview, created many qathet rose to the occasion and assembled forces to problems for homeowners over the years before it help our neighbours. You can call these initiatives a was diverted. In 1983, big concrete culverts were pur- predecessor to the modern day go fund me pages. chased by the Municipality, part of a $400,000 project to manage the creek. Blast from the Past is written monthly by Powell RivAlthough a great flood like the one facing our er Historical Museum and Archives public engagement neighbours today, has not been seen in our part of the coordinator Joëlle Sévigny. world just yet, similar flooding has occurred in the | jysevigny@powellrivermuseum.ca
BLAST FROM THE PAST
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• December 2021 • qathetliving.ca
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