#chilcotin river

[newsfromstolenland]

Emergency officials say flash floods are "imminent" and could happen within 24 or 48 hours after a landslide blocked the Chilcotin River in British Columbia's Cariboo region.

On Wednesday, the Tŝilhqot'in National Government said a slide of soil and debris blocked the river at Nagwentled, also known as Farwell Canyon, around 285 kilometres north of Vancouver.

"Flooding is building up above the dam created by the landslide, so it's like a lake," Cariboo Regional District chair Margo Wagner said at a virtual news conference Thursday.

"There is a high risk of a flash flood downstream if the river breaches that landslide — which it is expected to do eventually."

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Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The B.C. government says it's "extremely unsafe" to be near the banks of the Chilcotin and Fraser rivers both upstream and downstream from a massive landslide after water started flowing through the slide early Monday.

Emergency Management Minister Bowinn Ma said Monday that the water breaching the dam caused by the slide will cause river bank instability, although the chances of a worst-case scenario are "decreasing."

Ma says people should stay away and off the waters as officials monitor the flow downstream of the slide, which may impact the Farewell Canyon Bridge, about 22 kilometres downstream.

[...]

Officials said about 15 properties in the Cariboo and Thomson River Regional Districts are on evacuation order or alert.

Connie Chapman with the province's water management branch said the "pulse" of water from the dam breach will likely erode river banks, and carry debris from the slide.

She said the water started flowing through the debris slide, cutting about a 15 metre channel through the dam, and then began widening with water flows increasing by the hour.

She said some places along the rivers will see higher than spring runoff levels and cause the rivers to swell downstream in the coming days.

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[acelessthan3]

The Chilcotin River landslide last night (Aug 1, 2024) is fucking wild.

Thankfully not super near densely populated areas but there's for sure gonna be massive flash flooding when the "dam" breaks. And the town of Hope, BC is on high alert.

[johnnyslittleanimalblog]

Grizzly in the fog by Spirithills Via Flickr: Chilko River, Chilcotin (British Columbia, Canada )

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

I went on a bit of a road trip on the weekend. This is all from the first day. Exploring some of the chilcotin region along the Fraser River. It is truly an awesome place. I was hoping to make it to an old fire watch tower at the top of a mountain but my Honda CR-V couldn’t quite Make it all the way to the top. The road got pretty rough and I couldn’t quite climb through.

[propicsmedia]

CBC News: The National | Massive B.C. landslide prompts flood fears

[rabbitcruiser]

Raft River Viewing Park, Clearwater (No. 1)

Prior to European settlement, the area that is now occupied by the village was occupied by the Okelhs First Nations. They were eventually superseded by the Chilcotins in the 1870s.

The fur trade brought the earliest settlers to the area. The Overlanders expedition to the Cariboo goldfields rafted down the North Thompson River in 1862. When they first arrived at the mouth of the Clearwater River, they named it for its distinct clarity compared to the relatively muddy waters of the North Thompson. The Overlanders also named Raft Mountain, which rises northeast of Clearwater to a height of 2,450 m (8,038 ft).

1914 - Rail access was established. Previously access had been by steam boat or overland.

1953 - Transmountain pipeline completed through area.

1970s -Yellowhead Highway complete through area.

1968 - Clearwater is incorporated as a settlement.

December 2007 - Municipal government is incorporated.

Source: Wikipedia

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Landslide Dams the Chilcotin River

Late on July 30, 2024, land along the south bank of the Chilcotin River in Farwell Canyon began to sink and flow into the valley below. When the landslide stopped moving, a large piece of earth had dropped more than 50 meters (160 feet), leaving a mound of debris 1,000 meters long, 600 meters wide, and 30 meters deep that blocked the river and completely halted its flow.

When the OLI-2 (Operational Land Imager-2) on Landsat 9 captured this image (second from the top) on August 1, 2024, water had begun to pool behind the landslide deposit, creating a long, narrow lake. The first image (top) shows the same area on July 16, about two weeks before the landslide.

Soon after the event was discovered, local authorities issued flood warnings for areas upstream of the landslide and evacuation orders for areas immediately downstream. “The major threat in situations like this is that large amounts of water build up behind the landslide dam and eventually trigger destructive outburst floods,” said Robert Emberson, a member of NASA’s Landslides research team and one of the associate program managers for NASA’s Disasters program.

On August 5, water began to overwhelm the natural dam, causing water levels downstream to increase rapidly and carry woody debris down the river. Preliminary modeling from British Columbia’s River Forecast Center indicated that water levels would surge above typical spring flooding levels on the Chilcotin upstream of the point where it flows into the Fraser River.

On the Fraser, estimated flows are likely to be similar to or below peak flows that occur during typical spring flooding. However, “the water will react differently, with greater momentum and force, than a gradual increase in water levels,” officials from the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness (EMCR) warned.

As a trickle and then a gushing torrent of water chiseled through the landslide debris, authorities urged people to stay away from the riverbanks due to the risk of fast-moving water and debris. A gauge downstream at Big Bar showed Fraser River water levels peaking on August 6 at 3,640 cubic meters per second: a sharp increase, though not a historical record for that date.

“Fortunately, the Chilcotin River is sparsely populated, and evacuation warnings have already been issued,” Emberson said. “But the impact of flooding on agriculture downstream is still a concern.”

The photograph above, provided by EMCR, shows debris-filled water pooling behind the landslide dam on August 1. The image below, also provided by EMCR, shows the leading edge of the floodwater after it broke through the dam and flowed south along the Chilcotin River into the Fraser River on August 5.

The event occurred in a remote part of British Columbia, about 100 kilometers southwest of Williams Lake, in an area known as Nagwentled by the Tšilhqot’in, an Athabaskan-speaking indigenous group in the area. Nagwentled roughly translates to “landslides across the river.” Indeed, scars along the south side of the river and tongue-shaped debris fields visible in multiple areas indicate that landslides occur relatively frequently.

“The scalloped edges in the terrain immediately south of the point of failure appear to be ancient landslide scarps, some of which were likely considerably larger than the event in July,” said Daniel Shugar, a geomorphologist at the University of Calgary.

The river is also an important waterway for several types of salmon. In a statement issued after the landslide, the Tšilhqot‘in National Government expressed particular concern that the event had blocked the movement of Taseko sockeye, an endangered population that had been on track to return to spawning grounds at record low levels prior to the landslide.

“[We are] calling on all levels of government, downstream First Nations, the Pacific Salmon Commission, and other Nations and States, especially Alaskan fisheries, to take all precautionary measures possible to conserve Tšilhqot‘in territory-bound salmon,” the group said.

There are some ranches, farms, and mining operations along the river edges, and people regularly canoe and camp along the Chilcotin. A stretch of the canyon downstream with large sand dunes is a common destination for hikers, campers, and mountain bikers. According to the Canadian Broadcast Company, one person in the area was partially buried by the initial landslide and had to be rescued by a local resident.

Government officials and university scientists will be monitoring the situation in the coming days and weeks from the ground and from the air with helicopters and uncrewed vehicles using a variety of technologies. They will also be using satellites and other forms of remote sensing. “Satellites are indispensable for near-real-time monitoring of evolving disaster situations like this,” Shugar said. “Having eyes in the sky to see the entire slide and impounded lake is tremendously useful.”

NASA Earth Observatory images by Wanmei Liang, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Photographs courtesy of the Ministry of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness. Story by Adam Voiland.

[jeanjauthor]

A Landslide Just Blocked a Major River in Canada; Now 20,000 are at Risk

I’m down in the States, not too far south of the border, nowhere near the affected river valley...but I have friends & family up in BC.

I’m going to pop off a quick message to my governor, asking him to stand ready to offer help to our northern neighbors.  We most likely won’t be able to help prior to the inevitable flood, but we can start on the paperwork to get some rebuilding help lined up!

ETA:  I sent Governor Inslee a message encouraging him to start working on the international red tape & paperwork to get help sent up there.

People from all over the world helped us during the Oso, WA landslide over ten years ago.  We need to help the people of Chilcotin River, too.

[jeanjauthor]

I'll add that we're expecting that, at some point during the night, the Chilcotin River, in British Columbia, Canada will overtop the landslide that cut off the entire river flow a couple days ago. It could be a slow trickle, but most likely will devolve into a massive flood. Over 20,000 Canadians have been given mandatory evacuation orders in the last two days, due to concerns about flooding upstream from the back-up and massive damage downstream from the inevitable flash flooding. So there will be tens of thousands of Canadians who also might completely lose everything they were forced to leave behind in their homes.

Now, I am NOT trying to compare these two painful situations! Most Canadians living in the affected zone aren't under threat of being slaughtered by their own government! So if you're going to donate your money, do it for the folks mentioned in the original post.

But it is important to note that there are many ways to lose your resources & livelihoods, and that it can happen to any of us. Wildfires, floods, and/or genocidal mania, it could happen to anyone.

It could happen to you.

Be the kind of person that you would want to reach out to help you in a time of crisis.

...That, and this was a way to comment more than the requested nine words.

Many individuals displaced from Gaza to Egypt urgently need shelter, food, healthcare, education, employment, and mental health support. They face overcrowded living conditions, food scarcity, medical shortages, educational disruptions, and unemployment. Immediate assistance is crucial to help them rebuild their lives and restore their dignity.

Please chip in to this campaign if you can and share it as widely as possible for visibility! Let our support not stop at Gaza's borders.

[antonjesus]

BC landslide: Structure washed away after water tops Chilcotin River sit...

[mapsbyw]

[isfeed]

B.C. landslide 'dramatically' impacts salmon spawn but conditions improve: task force

The Tsilhqot’in National Government says river conditions are ‘slowly improving’ after the massive landslide that temporarily dammed the Chilcotin River last month, but salmon spawning activity is being delayed. Source: CP24 B.C. landslide 'dramatically' impacts salmon spawn but conditions improve: task force

[johnnyslittleanimalblog]

Who's going first? by Spirithills Via Flickr: Grizzly cubs in Chilcotin (British Columbia)

[markwateneymemorialcrater]

Driving around the small First Nations community of Dog Creek. Was hoping to find the remainins of an old RCAF aerodrome build in WWII as a supplementary airstrip. Sadly I didn’t find it. Was in the right field, but the landing strips are pretty much completely overgrown and I didn’t go far enough into the field. But I think it still is used occasionally for people flying into ranches up there or wildfire fighters.

I was told that there is a water tower and a few old concrete foundations still around. But I missed the road that leads to them. Maybe another trip I’ll find them.