In British Columbia, around 275 people, including 50 children, had to be rescued off of flooded highways near Vancouver on Monday after they became trapped Sunday evening by a deluge of water, rocks, and mud. At one point on Tuesday, every major road out of Vancouver to the rest of Canada was closed.
About 7,000 people in the town of Merritt, British Columbia, were ordered to evacuate Monday due to flooding and after the wastewater treatment system failed. This is the second time in less than six months that the town of Merritt was under an evacuation order. In August, residents were placed under an evacuation order as two wildfires raged nearby. The wildfire flames have long since been put out, but they’ve left an imprint on the land that’s making the flooding worse.
In Bellingham, Washington, the average daily record rainfall before this weekend was 0.88 inches (2.2 centimeters), which was handily beaten by Sunday’s 2.8 inches (7 centimeters) of rain. And evacuation orders are in place for communities in the valleys as floodwaters keep rising.
More than 40,000 households were still without power in western Washington as of Tuesday and major highways remained closed.
“We call this a cascading hazard,” Ward said. “We have increased heat, increased drought, resulting in increased wildfires, resulting in increased landslides. One hazard triggers another, which triggers another.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/the-pacific-northwest-is-in-the-midst-of-a-cascading-hazard/ar-AAQMzQF
We're keeping our ears open just in case. Vancouver isn't all that far away from here.
