HISTORICAL NEWS SEARCH - Government of British Columbia

mm/2 days), March 28-29, 1966; Terrace (70.1 mm/2 days), March 28-29, 1966; Prince Rupert M. Circ (96.0 mm/2
days), March 28-29, 1966; Kitimat 2 (234.1 mm/4 days), March 28-31, 1966; Kemano (119.1 mm/2 days), March 29-
30, 1966.
Source: Northern Sentinel, March 31, 1966; The Daily News, March 29 and 30, 1966; Mathews and Clague 1993.
Prince Rupert recorded 5.18 in. (131.6 mm) in three days and winds gusting up to 43 mph (69.2 km/h).
Kitimat reported 6.49 in. (164.8 mm) between March 27-31. Minor washouts occurred in the Terrace area. Highway
16 was flooded with 2 ft. (60 cm) 28 mi. (44.8 km) west of Terrace, as a result of culverts being too small to handle the
water. A small washout occurred between Kitimat-Kitamaat Village.
During the period March 26 to April 4, the hydrometric station on the Salmon River at Nine Mile, 9 km
downstream of Salmon Glacier, recorded unusual high discharges. Though 50 mm of rain was recorded at Stewart on
March 28, this seems inadequate to explain the high discharges during the following days. The highest mean daily
discharge was 265 m 3 /s on March 29. This discharge is 17 times greater than the next highest March discharge at Nine
Mile. It also exceeded by nearly 100%, the highest mean daily discharge recorded during the summer of 1966. A total
of 0.045 km 3 of water passed Nine Mile during this 10-day period, equivalent to approximately 18% of the volume of
Summit Lake. This anomalous discharge is not yet fully explained. Two possible causes are a sequential failure of a
cluster of water bodies within the Salmon Glacier, or a partial draining of Summit Lake (Mathews and Clague 1993).
April 8-12, 1966
Event type: Icejam flooding.
Precipitation: Not applicable.
Source: The Interior News, April 13, 1966, December 2, 1970; The Daily News, April 12, 15, 18, 22, 1966; The
Vancouver Sun, April 9, 1966; The British Columbia Road Runner, B.C. Ministry of Transportation and Highways,
June 1966 Vol. 3 No. 2, p. 2; Files M4-21-E34-0, M54-653-0 Smithers Bridge (Good Friday Damage). B.C. Ministry
of Transportation and Highways, Terrace.
On Good Friday evening, an icejam blocked the Bulkley River between the bridge and Riverside Park. Ice
was piled 15 ft. (4.5 m) above the river level, with some blocks as big as 10-ft. (3 m) square and 4 ft. (1.2 m) thick. It
dammed up thousands of gallons of water, causing the river to flood behind it and to drop 8 ft. (2.4 m) below normal
ahead of it. The backed-up waters overflowed their banks and flooded the flats surrounding the bridge area. The water
levels rose more than 1 ft. (30 cm) in half an hour. A 290-ft. (87 m) section of the 22-year-old Bulkley River bridge on
Highway 16, 1 mi. (1.6 km) east of Smithers, was taken out by break-up ice. *1) Riverside residents were evacuated.
On the Smithers side, the Vetterli farm and Lubbers’ Trailer Court were inundated.
On April 9, the Department of Highways reinforced the Canyon bridge on the Moricetown (Telkwa)
Highroad. On April 10, some quicksand collapsed, splitting the village’s sewer system. In an effort to break the
icejam, engineers set off a series of dynamite explosions that caused flooding at the village’s temporary water pumping
station, leaving villagers without water. On April 10 and 11, the Department of Highways crews exploded several
hundred pounds of dynamite in the icepack. Three quarters of the icejam was moved and the bridge site cleared.
Nearly 300 ft. (90 m) of highway bridge and supporting pier were torn loose. A 40-mi. (64-km) gravel road detour was
opened on April 8 for passenger cars and other light vehicles only. On April 11, the icepack moved, only to get stuck
again 1 mi. (1.6 km) downstream. On the River Park section, over 0.5 mi. (800 m) of ice got stuck and caused the area
to flood. A state of emergency was declared by Village Chairman Joe MacDonald to give the Council powers to cope
with the water and sewer problems in the community. Work on the pumpsite at Riverside Park had to be discontinued.
On April 12, a channel broke through the icejam easing the problems of the waterworks crews when the
water levels went down. Two small Smithers-based helicopters handled direct cross-river traffic. Detoured traffic on
the Moricetown-Telkwa Highroad had to be cut down to a single-lane pilot relay system. Daytime traffic was limited
to light vehicles; truck traffic was restricted to the hours between midnight-8:00 a.m. On April 13, approximately
8,000 lb. (3,632 kg) of dynamite were placed under the ice from a hovering helicopter. The blast, synchronised to go
off every 15 minutes, consisted of 150-350 lb. (68-159 kg) each. A Bailey bridge put in to replace the lost bridge
section was opened on April 21.
The ice was also holding back in a section of the Bulkley River in the Quick-Walcott area between Telkwa-
Houston.
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*1) Highway 16 was rerouted and a new permanent bridge was built, which was opened in August 1969. A new road
was constructed to connect the Glentanna and Babine areas with the new highway. In December 1970, the temporary
Bailey bridge was salvaged for future emergency use while the remainder of the old bridge was demolished and
scrapped (The Interior News, December 2, 1970).
October 21-24, 1966
Event type: Flooding.
Precipitation: Falls River (165.9 mm/2 days), October 21-22, 1966; Ocean Falls (220.2 mm/3 days), October 21-23,
1966; Aiyansh (100.0 mm/2 days), October 22-23, 1966; Kildala (102.9 mm/2 days), October 22-23, 1966; Kitimat
Townsite (145.8 mm/2 days), October 22-23, 1966; Kitimat 2 (175.3 mm/2 days), October 22-23, 1966; Prince Rupert
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