Three days of heavy wind and rains have left the Village of Lions Bay in an extreme water shortage.
The village's two main water intakes were hit by debris slides on Wednesday, knocking one offline entirely and damaging the other.
The village has set up an emergency operations centre and phone line at 604-834-3404 for updates during the water crisis.
"Resident compliance will be critical over the next several hours" was the latest message from the village on Thursday afternoon. "Aerial assessment of the site by helicopter has revealed Magnesia intake is badly damaged and non-operational. Harvey intake is back online at reduced capacity. It is unclear if the Harvey intake will remain online.. .. Staff are in the process of sourcing trucked water in an effort to help fill Harvey tank tonight."
It is unclear when staff will be able to fully assess the problem and begin work on repairs. "The degree of damage and the stability of the site is severe enough that public works crews are not currently able to access by foot due to safety concerns," said Mandy Koonts, the village's chief administrative officer in an email to residents early Thursday. tudents from Lions Bay Community School have been sent to Gleneagles Ch'axáý elementary in West Vancouver for Thursday and Friday, according to West Vancouver school district spokeswoman Bev Pausche. S omparatively, North Vancouver and West Vancouver both dodged a big wet bullet. Municipal crews put in long hours keeping drains clear and putting up sandbags near swollen rivers. But as the series of storms wound down on Thursday, there was little damage to tally. C est Vancouver experienced some localized flooding in Ambleside and a power outage on Wednesday morning in the area around Gleneagles Community Centre.
"Even though it's been heavy rain and it's been a lot of work crews, overall I would say we got a little easier than was forecast," said Jeff McDonald, West Vancouver spokesman.
Still in recovery from a storm that flooded roughly 40 homes and businesses in November, the District of North Vancouver also only saw minor issues. "We had lots of localized catch basin plugs and some ponding on the streets. The rivers were flowing very fast," said Gavin Joyce, the district's manager of engineering. "We'll be taking a step back and looking at our operational side but I'm very pleased with our response."
Residents are also owed a big thanks for helping with cleaning the catch basins and calling in localized flooding, Joyce added.
District staff deployed sandbags at lower lying areas of the Seymour River along Riverside Drive, though thankfully, they weren't needed. The river's flow peaked at midnight on Wednesday and has been trending downward since.
At peak flow, "we were looking at 350 cubic metres a second, which almost takes it to the top of its banks," Joyce said.
