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B.C. Storm Forces Ferry Cancellations Amid Severe Weather Warnings · INSIGHT TODAY

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Let's start, though, with a live look at downtown Vancouver.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It has been a very wet, windy day. Rainstorms have
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: swept across much of B.C. 's south coast, and they
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: continue to, leading to power outages, transportation delays, and even
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: an evacuation. It's not easy to get around right now.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: CBC's Dan Burt joins me now with the impact of
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: this weather. Dan, can you paint us a picture of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: what's been happening, not even maybe just in downtown Vancouver,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: but beyond?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: It goes well beyond this. Have a look at this map.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: This is power outages information from BC Hydro. As you
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: can see, it stretches all the way from Vancouver and
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: in through the Fraser Valley in the east, all the
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: way to Victoria, south on Vancouver Island, all the way
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: up through Nanaimo, Campbell River, Powell River, to the edge
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: in Port Hardia. Last check, at least 30,000 customers were
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: in the dark after wind, heavy rain, toppled trees, brought
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: down the Mont Power Lines, as we said, running the
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: length of most of the island. A landslide, in fact,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: we want to zoom in on another community now, which
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  Speaker 2: is called the community of Zabalos. sort of the northwest
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: corner or part of the northwest cove in Vancouver Island.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: This is a small community of about 125 people. It
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: has been put at least partially on evacuation order and
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: alert because of a landslide risk. Heavy rain started coming
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: in overnight and the local state of emergency has also
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: been declared for this. We also spoke with the chief,
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  Speaker 2: First Nation chief of the Ahadasat Nation in Zabalos, and
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  Speaker 2: he sent us some photos of what it looks like.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: You can see some of the flooding damage here. This
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: is the Zabalos River, and Chief Simon John told us
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: that just yesterday, you would be able to walk across
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: this river, but today it is right full. This was
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: some of the challenges of that community, and the BC
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: government is keeping a very close eye on this situation.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: The chief also mentioned that, in fact, it was a
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  Speaker 2: wildfire in 2018 that led to slope instability above the community.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: And that, according to him, are some of the problems
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: they're seeing with some of the flooding. That's just one community.
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: If you were trying to get between the lower mainland
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: and Vancouver Island today, it was a bit harrowing with B.C.
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  Speaker 2: ferries cancelling all sorts of sailings because of high winds
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: and all of that rain. In fact, at one point,
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  Speaker 2: the BC Fire Ferry's website wasn't working. It essentially crashed
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: because so many people were going on there to try
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: to cancel their bookings or change them. So to say
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: that it was challenging to get around for some customers, to.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Say the least.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, shoot, man, because I need to visit my best
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: friend because she's going to leave Canada in two days.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: So this is a very special.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: day for me.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: Uh you know i haven't seen weather like this probably
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: since march so it's back.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: Well i'm surprised it's funny you know i was going
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: to be coming with another friend and she said i
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: think the weather's going to be bad i'm not going
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: to go and i thought oh what the heck the
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: weather is weather it's always raining and um yeah she
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: was right.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: Now, Ferry says some improvement in the weather has allowed
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: them to resume some sailings, but there's still warning of
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: a lot of rain and high waves and wind because
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: of what's happening today, Sarah.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: You know, she's right.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: It is often always raining at this time. But what's
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: happening right now is not, you know, per the norm.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: We have over the summer a... on the West Coast
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: have been talking nonstop, it seems, about drought.
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: Yes.
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  Speaker 1: Very dry soil, which doesn't always mix. As much as
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: you might think a lot of rain would be helpful,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: it doesn't always mix well. when you have that much
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: rain falling on very dry soil.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Indeed, in fact, it could be sometimes disastrous because, and
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: it keeps arborists busy, certainly like this gentleman, Andrew Hooper,
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: who's been working here in Vancouver Park. What happens is
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: that soil, because it's been so dry, when a sudden
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: deluge of moisture hits it, it becomes what's called hydrophobic.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: It can't absorb it all at once, and it can
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: lead to runoff, and it can lead to pooling of water.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: You add a strong gust in there, and that can
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: be a lot of trouble for trees.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Have a listen.
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  Speaker 4: That can lead to some momentary, temporary instability in the
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  Speaker 4: root structures. When heavy winds come at the same time,
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: there is a risk of tree failure in those moments.
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  Speaker 4: But I think it's important for us all to remember
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  Speaker 4: that our urban trees are generally healthy and resilient.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Now, beyond the south coast here in Vancouver Island, special
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: weather statements for gusty winds are also in place for
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Prince George in northern central BC, the Caribou as well
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: as the South Thompson. So fall indeed has arrived once
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  Speaker 2: again here in beautiful British Columbia, Sarah.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, Dan, thank you.
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: You're welcome.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: As we say, this is continuing. It is not improving,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: at least not yet. So for a closer look at
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: the forecast, CBC News science and climate specialist Darius Madhavi
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: joins us from outside the studio, out in the wind
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  Speaker 1: and rain. Darius, can we expect this to end in
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the coming hours or how long into the night is
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  Speaker 1: it going to go?
• 5:03
  Speaker 5: Well, the rain has started to taper off now, which
• 5:06
  Speaker 5: is a little bit of improvement for a lot of
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  Speaker 5: these areas, but they have been hit extremely hard. So
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  Speaker 5: it'll be a bit of a time before that water
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  Speaker 5: stops pooling and starts to run off and evaporate. And unfortunately,
• 5:19
  Speaker 5: we just don't have that kind of time because another
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  Speaker 5: wave of moisture is on the way. If you take
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: a look at this graphic, you'll notice that overnight tonight
• 5:25
  Speaker 5: and even right now, we're seeing a bit of a
• 5:27
  Speaker 5: reprieve in the rain, but it's just a short gap
• 5:30
  Speaker 5: in between times. these rounds of precipitation with another one
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: arriving very quickly as we get into tomorrow. So this
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: is what we're looking at. It's essentially a big stream
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: of moisture moving through the atmosphere. We call it an
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: atmospheric river because of all that moisture moving over British
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: Columbia and that is packing a lot of rain. So
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: as it moves across, dropping high amounts of precipitation in
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  Speaker 5: a lot of these areas. And we actually have a
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: number of weather warnings issued across the region as a result.
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: This is just a general overview. And this is actually
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: significantly less warnings than we had just a few hours ago.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: In fact, just one hour ago. So parts of the
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: central interior extending to the central coast down to the
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: northern parts of Vancouver Island. seeing very high gusts of
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: wind and you'll notice here if we move further south
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  Speaker 5: a number of text boxes that are remnants of the
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: warnings that just dropped so these are places that got
• 6:22
  Speaker 5: up to 175 millimeters of rainfall over just 24 hours
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  Speaker 5: with again another round of that on the way very
• 6:30
  Speaker 5: high winds that we were experiencing a lot of these
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: areas as well which most for the most part has
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: now moved into the interior which will continue to experience
• 6:36
  Speaker 5: those strong winds uh into early tomorrow sarah.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: So, Darius, I mean, you're talking about another storm coming tomorrow.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Got any timing on that? Yes, so we.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: Will be probably get a bit of a reprieve through
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: the start of the day here on the coast while
• 6:54
  Speaker 5: the interior experiences some more strong winds in places like
• 6:57
  Speaker 5: the Peace Region. And then we see the really arrive
• 7:00
  Speaker 5: in force tomorrow afternoon and evening. So take a look.
• 7:02
  Speaker 5: This is the atmospheric moisture forecast. You can see those
• 7:05
  Speaker 5: rivers piling up on the coast day after day over
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  Speaker 5: the next week or so. And so these expected precipitation
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: totals continue. are extremely high this is starting this morning
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  Speaker 5: and running through the end of the weekend and this
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  Speaker 5: is on top of all the rainfall that came last
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  Speaker 5: night and through part of yesterday which would put our
• 7:23
  Speaker 5: totals by the end of the weekend in some of
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: these areas like parts of vancouver island probably up around
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: 250 millimeters of rain and locally potentially even higher than
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: that But the big thing to be watching for tomorrow
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  Speaker 5: is not just the rain, but the winds. We've seen
• 7:36
  Speaker 5: strong winds, as we heard from Dan, major impacts felt
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: across the south coast, but it's likely not going to
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: measure up to what's coming tomorrow. This is a bomb cyclone,
• 7:44
  Speaker 5: that red area you see there moving towards British Columbia.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: That is a very rapidly developing low pressure system, which
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: is going to arrive as we get into the day tomorrow.
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: That means extremely strong winds for parts of the coast,
• 7:58
  Speaker 5: maybe gusting up to 110, 120 kilometers per hour. And
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: I know people roll their eyes when they hear terms
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: like bomb cyclone. It's a real meteorological term. It's been
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: around for a long time, been around for 50 years.
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  Speaker 5: It just means a storm is developing very quickly and
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: is likely to generate extremely strong winds, which is what
• 8:13
  Speaker 5: we're going to see tomorrow, Sarah, across BC's coast and
• 8:16
  Speaker 5: into the interior.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Well, good to have that forecast from you. That's CBC's news,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: science and climate specialist, Darius Madhavi in Vancouver. Thank you.