Deadly Texas flood raises protection concern in B.C.

As the death toll continues to rise following Texas’ devastating floods, questions arise as to whether B.C. could manage such a disaster.

The deadly flash floods in Texas are prompting questions about flood mitigation methods north of the border.

Ryan Ness of the Canadian Climate Institute shared his concern with CTV News on Tuesday and believes there must be more investment in flood mapping, infrastructure and early warning systems.

“Canada has a patchwork of flood forecasting and warning systems,” said Ness via Zoom.

“There is no unified national framework.”

He went on to say that some provinces and territories have more refined and effective systems than others. In British Columbia, he said, the system is “pretty solid.”

He explained that the province’s centralized agency, the B.C. River Forecast Centre, provides continuous monitoring of river conditions and allows for information to be passed to authorities to alert the public.

According to Ness, areas susceptible to flash flooding in B.C. are typically rural and natural areas with steep terrain, where water runoff can be accelerated, or areas with scorched soil from wildfires.

“There’s no more vegetation to hold it together. The water runs off quickly and often brings mud and debris with it,” said Ness.

Flash floods have struck across Canada over the past year, including Coquitlam, B.C., where an atmospheric river rain event triggered a mudslide that killed a teacher in October.

Ness also questions whether flood mapping in B.C. needs to be improved and updated after flooding impacted communities across the province in 2021, including Merritt, which had a map that was decades old.

Sean Strang is the director of flood recovery and mitigation for the City of Merritt. He says the old flood mapping showed between 110 and 130 houses or structures within the flood zone. The new one the city is working on shows 1,274. Nearly half of the community is now in the flood zone.

According to Strang, the flood in 2021 was nearly double the strength the community was engineered for.

After years of pre-planning, holding public discussions and speaking with neighbouring Indigenous communities to find a plan that works well for the entire valley, the city is now rebuilding stronger flood mitigation protections.

“I can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Strang. “Are we at that light? Absolutely not. That’s probably something that’s going to be more like 2029 before this kind of capital program is built out.”

Strang said the city is hoping that no severe weather event happens over the next four years, as officials are unsure their current protections are enough to withstand it.

Strang says the province has provided $152 million since the 2021 flood. He says this makes up 70 per cent of the project cost and is urging the federal government to step up and help with more funding.

The province told CTV News on Tuesday that atmospheric rivers in November 2021 and October 2024 heightened people’s concerns about flood risks and highlighted the importance of flood preparation.

The province wrote that it has been increasing preparedness and mitigation efforts precisely because of warnings from experts on flood hazards and the impacts of climate change.

“This includes more than $410 million in provincial funding for about 605 flood risk reduction projects since 2017 with First Nations and local governments,” the government’s statement reads.

The province went on to note that it launched a new B.C. Flood Strategy in 2024 to build flood preparedness and mitigation across the province from now to 2035.

The B.C. government also provided details on regional flood hazard mapping in partnership with the federal government, writing that the mapping is focused on areas with flood risk and lacking adequate detailed flood hazard maps.

“These maps provide the foundation for effective flood risk reduction decisions by communities across B.C.,” the province said.