HISTORICAL NEWS SEARCH - Government of British Columbia

slides hit the railroad tracks and six to seven hit the highway. Highway 16 between Prince Rupert-Terrace was closed for
approximately 20 hours, from 8 a.m. on December 23 till 3 a.m. on December 24. From a helicopter Frank Maximchuk
observed a snow avalanche, a couple of hundred feet wide come down west of Kwinitsa (Maximchuk, pers. comm.).
December 23-29, 1992
Event type: Icejam flooding.
Precipitation: Not applicable.
Source: Vancouver Sun, December 28, 29, 1992; The Province, December 28, 29, 1992; The Interior News, January 6, 1993;
Jamieson and Geldsetzer 1996 (p. 176).
Late December a massive ice jam in the Bulkley River near Smithers caused the waters to rise to dangerous levels.
*1) The jam started forming down river near the Canyon Creek confluence. Current streamflow was 70 m 3 /s. On Christmas
Day, the river had backed upstream to the Dohler Flats area at the end of Rosenthal Road causing water over the banks. Pack
ice backed up quickly upstream, preventing a high icedam that would have caused flooding in the Kidd Road subdivision.
The river breached its banks in the 22 nd Ave. and Columbia area of the Ebenezer subdivision. The damage was apparently
confined to some basement flooding from rising groundwater levels.
Christmas Day was the most threatening with the river rising as much as 2 m in half-an hour. Careening ice blocks
moved across the lowest-lying areas. Approximately 50 residents were advised to evacuate. On Boxing Day, the risk of
flooding was so severe in the Dohler Flats area that the Ministry of Environment recommended the approximately 20
families living in the area to move into hotels in Smithers. However, the residents choose to stay to look after their properties.
On December 27, the dam stabilised and none of the 50 homes in the area had been flooded, but Provincial
Emergency Program workers warned residents to prepare to evacuate. The extremely cold weather with temperatures of -30 o
C caused the ice pack to thicken, but also lessen the chance of flooding. One resident estimated the ice flow about 2-3 mi.
(3.2-4.8 km) long, and the water level 3 m above normal. On December 28 the water rose 5 ft. (1.5 m) overnight, but later
dropped. Cooler weather stabilised the ice jam, which was now about 8 km long.
The sudden cold weather prevented serious icejam flooding near Smithers in the low-lying Kidd and Ebenezer
subdivision just opposite the town and Dohler Flats on the west bank of the river below Smithers. On December 27 and 30,
Smithers recorded temperatures of -22 o C and -35 o C, respectively. *2) The near-record December cold and an upriver
icejam off the end of Donaldson Road combined to avoid large-scale flooding.
On December 28, the dam was just over 4 km long and not showing any signs of weakening. The event started on
December 23 when the weather warmed up to zero and started to rain. The water level rose and ice patches along the
riverbanks broke off and started floating downstream. When the weather turned cold again the dam started to form at a
narrowing where a pile of boulders caught the floating ice. Water was also rising at the other end of town. Officials had
considered blasting the dam on Christmas Day, but believed the ice was too soft and therefore unsafe for workers to walk on
to set up an explosive device.
On December 27, an avalanche hit the powerline near its highest point along the route between Kemano-Kitimat.
One tower was totally destroyed, downing about 1 km of powerline. Due to the inhospitable weather and terrain it took 43
days to reconstruct the tower and restore power to the line. Fortunately, a parallel line was undamaged and was able to
provide power for the interim. The cost of repairing the damage came to over $1 million.
A hard, storm-snow slab fractured 1,000 m wide. Both the west and east aspects of Glacier Creek Bowl
avalanched and ran about 1,000 m down the 40 o incline, not stopping until they reached 10 o terrain. The avalanches were
size 3 and 4, respectively.
Prior to December 18, a cold, clear period had produced a weak layer of facets up to 4 cm thick sitting on 50 cm
of multi-layered ice crusts. Between December 18-26, up to 250 cm of storm snow accumulated on top of the weak layer
formed into a stiff slab of pencil hardness. On December 27, an Arctic front moved in and dropped the temperature to -22 o
C. A strong northeast wind transported even more snow onto the unstable snowpack. (Jamieson and Geldsetzer 1996).
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*1) Freeze-up jamming and lowland flooding are not uncommon on northern rivers. The Bulkley River, however, usually
flows freely through the Telkwa and Smithers areas (Reid White, head of engineering, Water Management Branch, Skeena
Region, In: The Interior News, January 6, 1993).
*2) The latter tied the all time low set in 1984. In January 1938, Smithers experienced the coldest day on record with – 43.9 o
C (The Interior News, January 6, 1993).
Late January 1993
Event type: Debris slide.
Precipitation: Nass Camp (49.2 mm/2days), January 28-29, 1993; Prince Rupert M. Circ. (132.1 mm/1 day), January
29, 1993; Kitimat 2 (45.2 mm/1 day), January 29, 1993.
Source: Frank Maximchuk (Ministry of Transportation and Highways, Terrace) pers. comm.
Late January on the Tow Hill Road a small slide came down on the northeast backside of Tow Hill. The slide, with
a volume of approximately 600-1,000 m 3 , occurred in extremely saturated clay. It was a flow rather than a block slide
(Maximchuk, pers. comm.).
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