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Snow, rain create havoc in the corridor

RCMP forced to close highway from Horseshoe Bay to Lillooet

Winter hit the coast with a sledgehammer last weekend, stranding motorists from West Vancouver to Lillooet as highway and emergency crews dealt with snow, ice, motor vehicle accidents, floodwaters, and avalanche hazards.

The worst of the storm hit on Sunday, with snowfalls of more than 34 cm reported on sections of Highway 99. That led to several accident closures during the day, and the eventual decision by the Ministry of Transportation to close the highway from West Vancouver to Whistler, and from Whistler to Pemberton from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. to allow tow trucks to clear dozens of stranded vehicles and for plows to get ahead of the storm.

The snowstorm encompassed much of the coast, as far south as Seattle, and made for some long drives home on Sunday. Depending on when vehicles left relative to the closures it took people anywhere from five hours to nine hours to reach Vancouver from Whistler, and travellers booked out hotels in Squamish to wait out the storm.

According to Constable Scott Bowden of Sea to Sky Traffic Services, the response of emergency services and highway crews to the storm will be evaluated next week at a debriefing with the Ministry of Transportation, Sea to Sky Regional Police Services, the West Vancouver Police Department and other stakeholders.

Overall, Bowden says that drivers were generally better prepared for the storm than in the past.

“We don’t have any numbers yet, but I can tell you that most of the highway closures were on Sunday, including a number of minor closures in West Vancouver because of motor vehicle accidents and problems around highway construction at Ansell Place (where the highway is diverted over a steep hill),” he said. “In communication with the Ministry of Transportation it was decided that we should close the highway for two hours, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., to give road crews a chance to clear the highway of snow and give the RCMP and contractors time to tow stranded and abandoned vehicles.

“We did reopen at 8:30 p.m., and things moved a lot more smoothly after that. It was still slow, but cars were moving and a few problem areas were taken care of. A lot of the traffic was because of volume at that point, and the fact they had snow in the city — people would get off the highway and would be just as backed up on the roadways.”

Bowden says the debriefing will help adjust their response to the next major storm.

“We’ll be looking to see what went well, what didn’t go well, and what changes we can make,” he said. “The number one concern for the RCMP is ensuring that motorists have proper tires. That means proper snow tires, not just winter tires or all-seasons.”

Sea to Sky Traffic Services did their first road inspections of vehicles during a minor storm the previous week, and only turned back two vehicles with improper tires.

“It seems that people are getting the message after least year, when these types of storms were a regular occurrence,” said Bowden.

However, the RCMP was busy dealing with the effects of the storm on Sunday, and Sea to Sky Police Services was not able to conduct vehicle inspections after Friday.

“Most of the problems during the day (on Sunday) started in West Vancouver with a vehicle losing control while heading northbound… and then a semi-trailer jackknifed outside of Horseshoe Bay,” said Inspector Norm McPhail. “That was cleared up in a few hours with Corporal Bowden coordinating with West Vancouver police, and after that the challenge was getting plows through, vehicles in to sand and salt the road, and two trucks to remove the cars that were stuck. That’s when the decision was made to close the highway.”

On Friday, when the snow began falling, crews set up road checks in Whistler, Squamish and West Vancouver to inspect vehicles, and there were only a few cases of cars getting stuck or going off the road. When conditions began to worsen on Sunday, the RCMP started to encourage people not to use local roadways and started to give regular updates to radio stations and the Drive B.C. website to advise drivers of the conditions.

McPhail says that the event was a learning experience for RCMP, as crews were forced to deal with new divided sections of the highway and the fact that there were fewer turnaround points for vehicles.

“The problem was access to sites and getting crews where they needed to be,” he said.

“Not all the drivers on the highway were properly equipped, but we did the best we could with the resources on hand. I would say we have improved in a lot of ways, but we can always improve more. The more we get together on this, the better we’ll be able to manage events in the future.”

Things became more challenging Sunday night when the snow turned to rain. That prompted another closure of Highway 99 at One Mile Lake in Pemberton as ice created a dam at the bridge and the Pemberton River spilled over the road. RCMP started to monitor the bridge with Search and Rescue at about 1 a.m. Monday, and the road was closed at roughly 4 a.m. Water over the road was two or three feet deep at one point, as crews from the Village of Pemberton, Pemberton Dyking District and Pemberton Fire Rescue were brought in to remove snow and ice from the bridge.

The road was reopened at 1 p.m. Monday

The Duffey Lake Road (Highway 99 from Pemberton to Lilloet) was also closed on Sunday and did not reopen until Tuesday due to the volume of snow and the avalanche and rock slide hazard.

To the south of Whistler, 15 homes in Strachan Point to the north of Horseshoe Bay were evacuated because of concerns that Charles Creek was going to overflow its banks. The evacuation order was given on Monday night, and stayed in effect until Tuesday afternoon when geotechnical experts were brought in to confirm that the danger was over. As of press time there was still an evacuation alert in place if water levels started to rise again.

Squamish also experienced localized flooding during the rain on Monday, but the highway was not affected. On Monday at 2:50 p.m. the community was put under a boil-water advisory due to the high turbidity of the water feeding the town’s water supply. The water treatment system was working, but the facilities could not guarantee the complete disinfection of the water.

The advisory was still in place at press time on Wednesday, and the Squamish District Operations department could not say when it might be lifted.

Localized flooding was also reported in Whistler, mostly confined to homes and businesses where the storm sewers or drains backed up. Eight units in The Lofts in Function Junction, a new Whistler Housing project that opened in the summer, experienced flooding and leaking after ice and snow plugged drains on the roof. The precise cause of the flooding is still being determined, but repairs will most likely be covered by insurance. The roof is also under warranty from the builders, according to the property management company.

Several other buildings also experienced roof leaks when drain systems backed up with snow and ice.