Residents in an exclusive waterfront neighbourhood near Stearman Beach in West Vancouver were mopping up today after a flash flood of heavy rain sent a torrent of muddy water through their neighbourhood, flooding basements in the middle of the night.
Hoses snaked through the yard and pumps were running in the basement of Wilma Marais’s home on Ross Crescent where water climbed about five feet high at the peak of the storm.
Marais said she woke up at 2 a.m. and heard water – inside the house.
She and her husband found water was streaming into her basement, she said. “It was like a river,” she said. “We saw it rising. It was rising really, really fast.”
Unsure of how much danger they were in, the couple called 9-1-1, rapidly packed a few items, and went outside, where they found water running down their street. "The water was really deep in the street as well," she said.
On Wednesday morning, knee-deep water still covered the basement, where Marais said a pool table, foosball table, treadmill and new 60-inch TV were likely among the casualties of the flood. Marais said her husband had seen their Bosu exercise balls float past in the night.
Firefighters evacuated four homes on the street as the floodwaters rose in the night. “They knocked on some doors and got some people out of bed,” said Jeff McDonald, spokesman for the District of West Vancouver.
All residents were allowed back into their homes by about 4:30 a.m.
Power to the street was shut off because of concern about the rising water levels. It had still not been restored by noon on Wednesday.
Jeff Bush, West Vancouver assistant fire chief, said the flood was the most extreme he’s seen in over 25 years in West Vancouver. There were several properties with "a considerable amount of water in them," said Bush. "The clean up's going to last for quite some time."
McDonald said the flooding happened after a large volume of rainfall sent debris down Willow Creek, blocking a grate and causing the muddy river to overflow the banks and run down into the neighbourhood.
Afshin Tajbakhsh stood outside his home on Ross Crescent, which is listed for sale for over $10.8 million, where a knee-deep pool of water flooded the outside patio and garden area. Tajbakhsh wasn't home when the flood happened, but raced to the neighbourhood in the morning when he heard the news.
Tajbakhsh said a home theatre, wine cellar, sauna and steam room in the basement and part of the first floor of the house were all covered in several feet of muddy flood water.
Sam Haydahl at 4495 Ross Lane was one of the luckier homeowners – his home sits on higher ground so wasn’t affected, although a garage down below was flooded and Haydahl said he’d seen his freezer floating inside it. “We’ve never seen rain like that before,” he said.
Over 56 millimetres of rain fell in West Vancouver between Tuesday morning and Wednesday at noon, said Environment Canada meteorologist Matt MacDonald. The most intense period of rainfall was between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Tuesday night, he said, when over 13 mm fell. “That’s a heavy amount of rain,” he said.
The rain was accompanied by a thunderstorm which included 16 lightning strikes within three hours in West Vancouver, he added. Pea-sized hail also fell in some neighbourhoods and remained on the ground like snow Wednesday morning.
Tuesday’s storms were caused by a “cold low” weather system in the upper atmosphere which slid down from the Gulf of Alaska, said meteorologists. “They bring us really unstable weather,” said MacDonald.
District of West Vancouver public works crews were on scene Wednesday morning, clearing debris from both Willow and Claymore creeks and placing sandbags to direct water flow away from homes.
