Good news for Quayside and Queensborough: the Fraser River spring runoff has peaked and is now receding. In plain English: we are unlikely to see a repeat of the 2007 floodwatch that saw Quayside sandbagged and residents put on evacuation alert.

Sunrise on New West Quay in May 2007. Photo by Intelligent Calcium

The City of New West Office of Emergency Management sent out a two-paragraph media release about it today based on information from the B.C. Ministry of Environment River Forecast Centre: given current snow conditions in the mountains, there is a very low probability for water levels to rise again this year.

Having been nine months pregnant and living on Quayside during the 2007 scare, I am very happy to hear it! I remember having vivid dreams of going into labour during an emergency evacuation, or discovering post-birth that I couldn’t go back home. This may have been when I dreamed I had to put Baby to sleep in a shoebox.

Being proactive folks, the emergency management folks used the second paragraph of the release to remind us all of our duty to prepare a family emergency plan and 72-hour survival kit in case of floods, earthquake, power outages, severe storms and other disasters. They’ve even compiled a helpful checklist for procrastinators on the city’s website.

Speaking of procrastinators, now that we’re expecting baby #2, maybe we should finally get on that emergency kit – if only to limit the scope of my progesterone-fueled nightmares.

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