November 1909 Atmospheric River Event

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November 1909 AR event totals (26th-29th)

Agassiz: 238.3mm
Source: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_d ... &Year=1909

North Nicomen (Deroche): 228.1mm
Source: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_d ... imeframe=2

Stave Falls: 196.3mm
Source: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_d ... &Year=1909

Coquitlam: 199.1mm
Source: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_d ... &Year=1909

New Westminster: 172.2mm
Source: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_d ... &Year=1909

Vancouver PMO (Downtown): 187.2mm
Source: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_d ... &Year=1909

Victoria Gonzales: 132.9mm
Source: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_d ... &Year=1909

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*Crosspost*

Old news coverage mentions the massive flooding from this event in Bellingham in Tacoma. Based on historical EC records, the Fraser Valley seems to have gotten about the same amount of rain as with this recent event so the flooding was likely on a similar devastating scale.

BELLINGHAM, Nov. 29.— Two steel railway bridges and three wagon bridges over the river were carried away by the floods and a jam is now forming against the Great Northern bridge at Ferndale. Traffic is blocked.

There Is no hope for the Skagit river dykes, and the Great Northern main line will be flooded, with the whole of the Skagit delta.

TACOMA, Wash, Nov. 29.—The railroads, and traffic In general, are suffering from the worst rain storm in the history of the city. The Puyallup is rising and threatening great damage to the valley.

Greys Harbor is isolated from the world, by raging rivers. The railroads are under several feet of water.

Source: https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=MP19091130. ... N--------1

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More info. Document about historic floods in the Skagit River basin, just south of the Fraser valley.

November 30, 1909: Since the settlement of the valley, this flood has exceeded all floods from the headwaters in Canada to the mouth of the Cascade River; the same is true from just below Birdsview to the sea, except where log jams forced the floods of 1897 and 1921 to higher elevations.

It is interesting to note that the 1909 flood damage, based on 1951 prices, has been estimated as $6,600,000, or about 4 times the original figure. This shows that floods of great magnitude would now cause large monetary damage and have a serious effect on the economy of the valley.

The flood of November 1909 was the largest flood on the Skagit River since the coming of the white man in 1878, except for the reach from Cascade River to a short distance below Birdsview where it was surpassed by the flood of November 1897. Higher stages may also have occurred at other points during other floods as a result of log jams.

Sedro Woolley - Stewart estimated that this flood probably exceeded the flood of 1909 by about 7 feet and covered the highest ground in the town of Sedro Woolley with 1.5 feet of water. This would be equivalent to 10 feet of water in the present business district.

Source: https://pubs.usgs.gov/wsp/1527/report.pdf

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Nooksack River flood in 1909 highlighted.

nooksack1909.PNG

Source: https://www.whatcomcounty.us/DocumentCe ... ory?bidId=

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Flooded street from Nooksack River, Sumas, November 30, 1909
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File ... 1287).jpeg

Flooded_street_from_Nooksack_River,_Sumas,_November_30,_1909_(WASTATE_1287).jpeg

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More info.

An unmeasured flood in 1909 was probably the largest this century, but only a handful of settlers lived in the floodplain at that time, so the flood had little impact on humans.

Source: https://cedar.wwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.c ... text=wwuet

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Lots more info on this document.
Source: https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/public_sa ... south1.pdf (Pg. 40)

At the end of November, the New Westminster district experienced the “most severe rainstorm for over 25 years” with nearly 7 in. (177.8 mm) of rain falling in 48 hours.

In 24 hours ending November 28 at 5 p.m., almost 4.5 in. (111 mm) of rain fell in the Vancouver area. (*1)

On November 28, a “cloudburst” dropped 4.5 in. (114.3 mm) of rain.

(*1)The nearest approach to the weekend’s rainfall went back as far as 1883, when 4.5 in. (114.3 mm) fell in 24 hours (The Daily Colonist, December 1, 1909).

In Vancouver, a large section of Broadway between Heather-Bridge (now Cambie) streets washed away. A huge amount of material was literally sluiced away into False Creek. Heather Street Creek did serious damage on 9th Avenue on the night of November 27-28.

On the afternoon of November 29, it broke through the 9th Avenue embankment at Heather Street and worked its way to False Creek. The flood backed up at 9th Avenue, in its downward course wrecked the 8th Avenue bridge over the creek.

At 7th Avenue, where several buildings were feared to be swept away the crest passed without doing damage. The occupants of several houses along the edge of the ravine were asked to evacuate. One residence at 8th and Heather had a portion of its foundations swept away.

Temporary repairs included building a trestle 52 ft. (15.6 m) wide (long?) over the cut along 9th Avenue. The cave in measured a width of 30 ft. (9 m) and a depth of 20 ft. (6 m).

The city engineer stated that his department had been working for some time on a large drain down Laurel Street, which would take some of the water now coming down Heather Street.

This drain had so far been extended only as far as 10th Avenue, and had been of no service during the emergency on November 27-28 (The Vancouver Daily Province, November 30, 1909).

Flood water overflowing onto 9th Avenue (Broadway) from the Heather Street Creek (Nov 28, 1909)
Source: https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/broadway-falls

9bc2441c-8178-4220-9e0a-1b089dc930b9-A37240.jpg

Broadway Falls on Ninth Avenue (Broadway) and Heather Street (Nov 28, 1909)
Source: https://searcharchives.vancouver.ca/bro ... her-street

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Source: https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journ ... 0_co_2.xml

In the State of Washington the floods occurred in the small, but swift flowing streams that head in the Olympic Mountains, the rivers on both sides of the Cascade Mountains, and the Chehalis and Willapa rivers that head in the coast range and flow directly into the Pacific Ocean.

The floods were caused by a combination of the heaviest November rainfalls on record, and warm winds that melted the snow fields at the headwaters of the streams.

The rainfall was almost continuous, except for a few days about the middle of the month, and all the rivers were in flood, some of them reaching stages higher than ever before recorded.

No details were available for the rivers in the northwestern part of the State, but the cooperative observers of the Weather Bureau agreed in the general statement that the floods were the greatest that had occurred since they had lived in that section.

In other sections there were the usual reports of damage to railroads, bridges, farm lands, live stock, grain, etc. The greatest damage appears to have been done along the Skagit and Chehalis rivers, but an accurate estimate of the total amount is impossible.

The losses along the Skagit River alone amounted to over $1,000,000, and those along the Chehalis to about half as much. Roughly speaking the total losses could not have been less than $4,000,000.

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Source: https://www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/public_sa ... south1.pdf (Pg. 40-41)

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On November 28, mail service in and out of Vancouver was halted. As it appeared this would last for at least four days, outbound mail was piling up in the Vancouver post office. Telegraph lines south and east were also out of commission. Later on November 30, the CPR Telegraph company managed to get a line open to Winnipeg. Both in Vancouver and at outside points, the telegraph offices were blocked with messages.

The heavy rain caused many landslides and washouts. Rail traffic on the CPR line was blocked between Vancouver-Lytton and between Lytton-Barnet. Some of the largest slides took place at Barnet, China Bar, Spuzzum, Keefer’s and Lytton. Over 1,000 men were at work on the line between Vancouver-Lytton. All westbound passenger, mail and express traffic was held at Lytton. The eastbound Express No. 2 stopped at Barnet, where it encountered a mudslide. While pulled up close to the obstruction, another slide came down on the west side, trapping the train. The western slide was removed on November 28, enabling the train to return to Vancouver.

In the afternoon of November 30, a mudslide covered the railroad tracks near Hammond for a distance of 80 ft. (24 m). Next day at noon, the tracks were cleared. An hour later, the break in the line near Lytton was repaired. On December 1, the rail line between Vancouver-Kamloops was clear except at three points where such damage had been done that considerable pile driving and trestle building was required before the line could be reopened.

In addition, some small slides occurred east and west of Revelstoke. Between Vancouver-North Bend, there were still two breaks in the line; one just west of North Bend and the other near Yale. There was also a break at Kanaka, just east of North Bend and minor problems approximately 2 mi. (3.2km) east of Lytton.