The water has been higher, actually
The news reports out of southern BC mentioned high water levels. The video coverage showed lots of water: on the streets, on the lawns, on everything that should “normally” be dry. My first impression ws that people had built their homes a bit too close to the edge of their lake. And then, my sense of geographic name recognition kicked in, and so I called up some maps.
We had visited the area, several years ago. My first memory was of a campground that had sandbags, along the edge of a rather impressive river bank. The water seemed to be way down from where we were parked.
There were also impressive amounts of gravel, in the oddest of spots. And finally, the campground staff gave us some background. “Look up, in that tree. The last time we had high water levels, that tree was submerged.”
There it was. The holy crap moment. In that area, when the waters rose, it happened quickly and with great impact. The campground owner had just sold the property, and was looking forward to moving to much higher ground.
With that in mind, I take the BC flooding much more seriously. The lake that had reappeared after a century, that was a real impact of man believing in an ability to control much larger forces. Like floods.
I probably won’t be back in the area any time soon. Blame it on my age, and the realization that I didn’t need to redo the limited travels of my youth. In fact, I’ll go for a bottom line on this one. Been there, didn’t have to swim for my life, am content to just remember.
