Anybody living in a flood zone getting ready???
 

This year would seem that a flood will be inevitable for many of us in the Lower Mainland. Is everyone thats living in the flood zones doing anything to prepare their families and of course ........ their fish tanks?

it can be an interesting year for floods i think

I live on a mountain!

I live in Mission, I am in no risk of getting wet, but BC hydro has said if they may have to shut down some substaitions and that we could be out of power for up to 2 days. I have a generator but that also means no camping for the May long weekend as the Frazer river is suppose to peak some time about May 21st to the 24th

good point
 

I think thats one aspect of the potential flooding that most people are not aware of - although you may not live in a flood zone, the flooding may wipe out electrical grids in which it cannot be restored until the water subsides.

For our tanks' insurance, I would strongly suggest to anybody who has a Costco membership to go buy their $400 2800W continuous power Champion generator and keep it in the box. Get a jerry can with gas too. If you need it, take it out of the box and fire it up. If you don't, take advantage of their return policy and bring it back. Its a good thing to have regardless of the flood or not.

That's what I picked up last summer, I've only had to use it once (knock on wood) for about a hour or so.

There is some minor assembly required including adding the oil to it.

http://zld.ca/reef/gen01.jpg

I noticed walmart had some cheap generators, $149 dollars. It could run a few old power heads and a heater. Corals can survive a few days without lights

Bill,

I was wondering about this generator. What does "up to 4000 surge/peak watts" mean? I see it says "peak" on the box but it says "surge" on the costco website.

From what I understand some if not all of the large electrical motors like on the larger pumps and fans during start up will use 125% of the normal load for a few seconds to get started and then go back down to the normal wattage.

At least that’s my limited understanding of it. :mrgreen:

Oh, ok thanks :biggrin:

reply
 

Just tagging along.

No danger of flooding where I'm at but I have noticed that the mountains still contain a abnormally large amount of snow in them. Some look completely white, which is strange for this time of year. This could mean a repeat of 2005 if the snow melts too quickly. Any one living along the rivers in Calgary should be looking at getting prepared.

water levels
 

This year is going to be crazy.Everything about this year is shaping up to make for a big mess.I run a tugboat on the fraser river and so far we have seen very little spring runoff.Nights are still staying cold in some places and this isn't helping at all.Now we are going to get a big spell of hot weather thats going to jump water levels quite fast.A couple guys I work with that live on the river have taken a lot of stuff to storage because they figure this is the year they lose there house.Kinda scary when you don't know if your house is going to be floating down the fraser and it not a floating home.In the past they have had water in there yard and the snowpack hasn't been as big and tempatures have come up a lot slower but thats not the case this year.I hope it doesn't get to bad or I'll be sitting at home which doesnt pay the bills and makes puting more stuff in the tank even harder.:sad:

Ya we have a bunch of army guy on Base that are on 24 hours to move up to B.C if something happens. I'm not going to be going due to training for Afghanistan....:mrgreen: I know that working on flood water is very hard on the body. When I work with our unit in the Winnipeg flood they ended up forgetting about us and not gettign us food. SOme guy with a boat ended up bringing in Pizza and Dounuts to us along with water. That was a big morale boost........ considering that we didnt have any food for 2 days due to a certain part of the rive rwas getting very dangerous. But hey send in the Army guys:redface:

I hope everyone in the flood area will be safe and take care... good luck

Don't worry about a short term loss of work, you will be busy for the next year trying to recover all of the lost booms, barges, houses, boats,ect....that go floating into Georgia Straight. Oh, and did I mention the major construction boom that will take place when the whole valley rebuilds after the flood. It's sad that their struggling to build up the dyke systems now when the possibility of flooding has been very high for several months now, even under normal melting conditions. Now that the melt has been delayed, flooding is almost certain in allot of areas. They waited to the last minute to work on the dyke systems that have needed upgrading for years. I've only heard of a few cities doing anything, New West being one of them. What else is being done?
Oh well, I wish everyone the best, it will effect everyone in some ways, road closures ect...And it won't just be the Fraser, look for floods & land slides ect... anywhere there's a river. Over here on the Rock, we were still getting snow on the mountains last week. If it were me (living in a flood plain), I would be taking this very seriously and moving my valuables to higher ground. I'd be sand bagging my house in and buying a couple of trash pumps to move water out. I'd also buy a generator and stock pile lots of fuel, food and water.
Hopefully things don't get to crazy, I guess we'll see........
Shaun.

well I have to say that doesn't help me sleep.The fact that place are still getting even cold weather is very bad for us let alone snow still falling.Oh well I'm payed by the hour so guess I'll hope they keep us there every hour they can.Clint

Think on the bright side, at least you live on high ground!

No one from Richmond??
Everyone lives in the mountains, well I got to say i'm not the least bit worried yet. I think if the floods happen Richmond will build a wall quick don't think they'll let the airport sink also the skating ring for the olympics big money spent there. Although I was thinking instead of buying a house next year it should be a house boat that way if it does flood my house will raise with the water...:razz:

Richmond??? Isn't that the city they built on the Fraser River Delta? I'm prety sure most of it is below the level of the dykes so....if one of them goes, by by Richmond. Just my 2 cents.
Shaun.

Hahha that's why all you can do is laugh and pray!
I would be more worried about my car than the tanks so if I even hear about a threat of a flood I'm off to sfu don't think the flood can get that high if not just hope the air in the lo profile tires will help the bouyancy abit. not too sure about the spelling lol.

I think it is going to be a real wet spring for a lot of this Province. It is already flooding in parts of Prince George and they have issued alerts. Guess what? That water is all heading south as it is the Fraser River that is flooding. If you go into the River Forecast Center and look at the snow pillow information it is just plain scary.
I do think however that for the majority of us the biggest thing we will have to be prepared for as far as our tanks go is to be ready for extended power outages.
I live in the sticks and also do quite a bit of traveling with my horse so I have 2 Honda generators. One is a 3000is inverter and the other is a 5000is inverter. With these I can basically run most of the equipment on my tanks as well as the TV and satellite - or if I am away I can leave one generator at home which will easily power all of my pumps and powerheads to keep circulation going.
When you start to add all the $$$$$ we have invested in our tanks a generator is really a small price - not to mention that if your basement was getting wet the generator could also power the sump pump to get the water out. Those of you living in flood potential areas might want to see if your neighbor(s) might be interested in splitting the cost of a generator with you.
Just my 2 measly pennies worth.

you should be worried
 

unfortunately if you live in richmond, you should be very worried. If you were to look at the flood zone maps, the entire city no longer exists in the event of a flood. there is no wall that men can make in a day that will stop the fraser river. the forces of nature cannot be stopped nor should it be taken lightly; your level of preparedness is your only protection to minimize the impact on you and your family.... and your reef tank.

Costco has a $60 off coupon in the lastest Costco Magazine that came out last week.

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

river levels
 

Here's a link to Environment Canada's River Levels site. Just incase anyones curious about what's going on with the spring freshet in their area. You won't find every river, but you can get an idea by looking at other rivers near by. It mainly has rivers with hydro electric and drinking water use ect...
Shaun.
http://scitech.pyr.ec.gc.ca/waterweb/formnav.asp?lang=0

refund
 

I just bought the 2800W continuous /4000W peak generator from Costco and they said to bring the receipt in next month and they will refund the amount. :lol: $340 for a good size generator's not too shabby.

river climbing
 

Well the river is at 13.4ft up 1ft from early yesterday.not that thats huge but it is still rising.Anyone upcountry got any updates on the river???Clint

If you check on that river levels site, there are stations all the way up the Fraser and some major tributarys-Thompson, Nechako, Quensnell ect... It will give you a good idea of what's on the way.
Shaun.

IIRC when I used to work for the Ministry of Environment the key stations to watch for flooding on the Fraser are:
The Fraser at McGregor
The Fraser at Prince George
The Fraser at Quesnel
The Fraser at Hope

Once the McGregor and Nechako empty into the Fraser most of the other downstream tributaries are a lot smaller and do not cause as much concern.