Being prepared for flooding in the spring cost the city about $350,000. This included the cost of sand bags, water-tube dams, lock blocks, and the labour and equipment required to install and remove items.
New Westminster avoided flooding during the spring freshet, but it may not be so lucky in the future.
A staff report to council stated that many of the upstream tributaries in the Fraser River watershed experienced greater than average snowfall during the 2011/12 winter season. In addition, heavy rainfall contributed to a number of high stream flow advisories for the Lower Fraser during the height of the freshet, which is the spring thaw of snow.
"We came fairly close this time," said Coun. Chuck Puchmayr, chair of the city's emergency advisory committee. "We had some situations with snowmelt and heavy rains. We almost had the perfect storm that would have caused flooding in New Westminster."
While flooding occurred in areas like Barnston Island, Puchmayr said no areas above the dykes were affected. He noted that some areas below dykes were impacted by high water.
Puchmayr said he's pleased that New Westminster's emergency planning staff was able to put together a plan to prepare the city for potential high water.
"I think we are in good hands when it comes to responding to the peaks at Mission gauge," he said about one of the locations where the river level is monitored. "Good work by our staff for staging everything."
Although New Westminster didn't see any flooding this year, Puchmayr said he could see a day when the city will need to raise dykes farther to address high water.
According to the staff report, a detailed flood mitigation plan has been updated based on this year's experience and will be used in freshet response planning in the future.
"The mitigation measures included in the 2012 program were predominately temporary in nature," stated the report. "While it is the intention of the program to leave or reuse as many of the temporary measures in place as possible, there are some locations where they were removed. These are typically associated with areas that provide natural storm drainage, where significant vegetation or landscaping currently exists and where access is a concern."
