Canada: Heat wave, ice jams lead to massive flooding in western New Brunswick
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Mar 25, 2012, 4:17:20 PM3/25/12
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Perilous
Times and Climate Change
Canada: Heat wave, ice jams lead to massive flooding in
western New Brunswick
By Jennifer Pritchett, Postmedia News March 25, 2012
New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal
A "March heat wave'' that sparked an unusually early spring thaw
and triggered an ice jam along the St. John River is to blame for
severe flooding in western New Brunswick.
Two weeks of continuous melting to the St. John River's
tributaries, coupled with an overwhelming ice jam, led to the
river bursting its banks and forcing much of the region under
water.
"The ice jam is definitely the cause of the flooding in that
area," Karl Wilmot, river watch co-ordinator for the province's
Emergency Measures Organization, said. "The melt that we have
experienced over the last two weeks is at a minimum of two weeks
ahead (of schedule)."
He said the optimal situation at this time of year is a gradual
melt with what has become known as maple syrup weather, which
brings daytime highs above freezing and temperatures below
freezing during the night.
"Once the temperatures start to drop, it's like shutting off a tap
in your kitchen," he said. "The water stops going into the
tributaries and into the St. John River at the volume it was
during daylight hours when it was melting fully."
But New Brunswick, for more than a week, had a continuous melt and
with that, came higher-than-normal volumes of water for this time
of year.
The recent weather that swept through Central and Eastern Canada
was described by David Phillips, Environment Canada's senior
climatologist, as a March heat wave - as though spring was skipped
altogether and the seasons jumped straight to summer.
The warm weather has fast-tracked the spring thaw in areas such as
northern New Brunswick where there is still ice and snow.
"The ice covers broke and in a lot of cases, they didn't cause any
problems and floated on down the river and everything was fine,"
Wilmot said. "In this case, the ice hung up and water started
backing up behind it."
Had there been significant rainfall in recent days, he said, the
flooding would have been worse.
Meanwhile, with floodwaters still covering much of downtown
Perth-Andover - about 175 kilometres northwest of Fredericton -
the New Brunswick government says it's too early to talk about
damage assessments and compensation.
Public Safety Minister Robert Trevors, who is monitoring the
situation from Fredericton, said officials are focused on helping
individuals and families displaced by the rapid flooding Friday
that forced the evacuation of the village's riverside homes,
institutions and businesses.
Trevors said damage assessments would have to wait.
"We're still making sure everyone is safe and cared for . . .
that's the main priority now. We have teams ready to get to work
the minute the water levels drop enough that we can get an
evaluation of the extent of the damage."
Premier David Alward, who visited the flooded village Friday with
Trevors, said there are provincial and federal programs in place
to help cover flood damage and losses once the figures are
compiled.
"This is significant," Alward told reporters Friday as he surveyed
the damage.
"I am hearing this is worse than 1987 and 1993, which were the two
worst floods in this area."
The flooding, which occurred late Thursday and early Friday, led
to the evacuations of 153 addresses - including homes, apartment
buildings and businesses - in Perth-Andover and 53 residents were
removed from nearby Tobique First Nation.
Wilmot said Saturday that the flood waters have started to slowly
recede.
"We expect the flows to diminish . . . and we expect them to
diminish over the course of the next week or so," he said.
The St. John River has had repeated problems over the years with
ice-jam flooding.
According to Environment Canada, ice jams have been a factor in
about 42 per cent of New Brunswick's reported floods, and that
floods involving ice jams tend to more destructive that open-water
floods.
During the 1970 flood, which involved a series of ice jams in six
New Brunswick rivers, 32 bridges were destroyed and 124 others
damaged.
For the flood in Perth-Andover, said Wilmot, it remains a waiting
game until the waters recede and it's safe for health and safety
inspection teams to assess the damage.
"The water has to recede enough so they can actually get to these
places," he said.