Summer storm drops 55mm of rain on West Kootenay, Nelson escapes brunt of Mother Nature's wrath
By Bruce Fuhr
Motorists drove through water up to headlights and a man frolicked in a rubber dinghy on Baker Street but the City of Nelson escaped major damage after Mother Nature dumped upwards of 50 millimeters of rain on the West Kootenay Tuesday afternoon.
“All of Ward Street was like a raging river . . .. The water was flowing high enough that it jumped the curb and was running down the side of the building,” said Duane Magas of the Hume Hotel.
“It was pretty crazy . . . there were puddles and rocks and gravel on the roads,” said Jalessa Maglio at Canadian 2-for-1 Pizza, located at the most troublesome spot in Nelson, the corner of Hall and Front Street.
“The police stopped all the traffic and there was water spraying up out of the man hole.”
The thunderstorm started in the mid-afternoon, peaking at approximately 4 p.m. and lasting for 90-plus minutes.
Storm sewers had difficulty keeping up with the mountain of water flowing down the paved Nelson streets from the higher locations in the city.
However, unlike Castlegar that saw several mudslides, including one on Hwy 3A near the Brilliant Dam, one near Selkirk College and even driveways spilling out onto Hwy 22, Nelson dodged a bullet.
“There was some flooding of basements in lower Fairview and in Rosemont . . . and there was a washout neat the (Chahko Mika) shopping mall,” Nelson Fire Chief Simon Grypma told The Nelson Daily Tuesday evening.
“Most of the damage occurred pretty much in lower Nelson because of the high volume of water received during that weather event.”
The wall of water forced police to halt traffic on Front Street, diverting traffic up to Vernon Street via Hendryx.
“We had several smaller vehicles due to the depth of the water, that were stalled and water was flooding into the brick building on the corner from the waves of the traffic,” Grypma explained.
The storm taxed all of Nelson’s support staff — Fire and Police Departments as well as public works, which were able to keep the panic to a minimum thanks to efforts of citizens.
“We were very happy to have the cooperation from the public,” said Grypma.
“The public was very cooperative and aware of the problems we were trying to deal with.
“There are pretty serious issues when manhole covers are blown off but everybody was just taking it on the cheek a bit, realizing this was another storm in a summer full of rain.”
Grypma said there were no reports of any injuries from the storm.
The forecast for the West Kootenay in the upcoming days is for a return to sun before rain, what a surprise, returns for the weekend.
However, before Nelsonites can return to the beach or golf course, there’s a little unfinished business of cleaning up the mess.
“There’s going to be a lot of clean up over the next few days,” said Grypma. “There’s definitely going to be repairs needed to private property because there was a lot of water that really had not place to go.”
Read also:
http://thenelsondaily.com/news/update-highway-3a-east-castlegar-was-re-opened-20019
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