Knock on wood: no flood this year

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.

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.