Weekend storm causes minor flooding in Beach Grove
Delta municipal officials issued a flood warning on Sunday (Nov. 27) after the severe weather and high winds battered much of the B.C. coast last week. Winds never reached maximum forecasted speeds and the warning was lifted at about 8 a.m.
Mayor Lois Jackson and chief administrative officer George Harvie were on hand at the Beach Grove and Boundary Bay neighbourhoods following the flood advisory.
"The winds (changed direction) more south into the United States and didn't reach the Tsawwassen area, which was fortunate for us," said Harvie, who arrived at the Boundary Bay beach at 4 a.m.
He said peak wind speeds reached 60 kilometres per hour before beginning to diminish at around 5:30 a.m.
The flood warning came just days after wind previously caused concerns along the beach.
"The wave action was actually more conducive to spillover and splashing over the walls on Thursday (Nov. 24) than it was (on Nov. 27)," Harvie said. "We did have some minor flooding in the Beach Grove area (on Nov. 24), but it was minor."
Harvie said residents who live on the water should take advantage of the sandbags the municipality provides if they want to improve the heights of their beach walls.
Despite the high winds, BC Ferries spokeswoman Deborah Marshall said it was smooth sailing from the ferry terminal on Sunday.
"It was windy, but it wasn't windy enough to cause us to cancel service," Marshall said. "We did have cancellations out at Tsawwassen on Thursday (Nov. 24), but over the weekend everything was fine."
The Nov. 24 cancellations affected vessels going between Swartz Bay and Tsawwassen, Duke Point and Tsawwassen and the southern Gulf Islands and Tsawwassen.
About 2,000 residents in Ladner and Tsawwassen had to deal with power outages in the early morning hours of Nov. 27.
BC Hydro spokeswoman Jennifer Young said power went out at about 2 a.m., but was restored by 6:30 a.m.
"We found a couple of down lines, but how the lines got down, (BC Hydro) is not sure. Could be wind, could be other causes," Young said.
She could confirm that it was high winds that knocked out power for 4,800 residents in Ladner on Nov. 24.
It took about four hours for power to be fully restored.
newsroom@southdeltaleader.com
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