Public Flood Update-August 15
Hi All,
This is the 19th email update sharing information about the flood situation for the Southern Lakes and Laberge. New flood info is highlighted in yellow. New flood response info is highlighted in blue. New flood recovery info is highlighted in green.
Over the past week, Southern Lakes are rising again, and we will hit a 2nd peak above 2007 flood, but not likely to match July peak. Laberge continues to come down although the rate has slowed. It is currently back to the 2007 peak. Atlin is still rising and will likely surpass 2007 record shortly. The Yukon River in Whitehorse has come up a couple inches over the past week. The latest flood model indicates levels can rise in August depending on precipitation, but are now not likely to reach the peak they did earlier in July. As of Wed 4-Aug, the flood evacuation alerts were rescinded for Southern Lakes, Sawmill Road and Laberge. With some levels rising again, I am attaching the latest graphs as well as the backcast and forecast info sheet.
Flood response:
* The Incident Management Team information line is: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 867-332-7084
* If you or a neighbour you know needs some help, please let me or the flood team know
* Sand and sand bags are available at 11 locations
* Marsh Lake: South McClintock Rd / end of River Road in South McClintock / Boat launch off Nolan Drive / Community Centre
* Tagish: Community Centre / Cemetery
* Whitehorse: Robert Service Way across from Yukon Energy
* Laberge: Horse Creek Road / Jackfish Bay / Hootalinqua fire hall
* Carcross: by the airstrip
* The flood team is prioritizing residences that are most at risk of flooding from flood and groundwater
* They have retained flood specialists from the prairies
* Canadian Armed Forces last day of support was Monday 2-Aug
* Landfill hours are extended to 7 days a week in support of flood defence activities
* As of 9-July, the Southern Lakes + Laberge + Kusawa Lake flood was declared a state of emergency
* As of 4-Aug all evacuation alerts were rescinded, and as of 9-Aug the evacuation order for the property on Shallow Bay was lifted
* The Carcross pedestrian bridge has been re-opened
* Low points on the Jackfish Bay road have being raised; Lewes Sawmill is still slated to be raised
* As of 13-July we issued our first evacuation order due to concerns that groundwater had made a foundation unstable in Shallow Bay (click here<https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/evacuation_order_-_shallow_bay_road_amended.pdf>)
Flood recovery:
* At the 29-July flood meeting, the flood response team introduced the topic of flood recovery and identified 4 areas of consideration
1. When and where to clean up / remediate
2. Funding programs
3. Help with insurance
4. Increasing future resilience for property and infrastructure
* The team indicated that right now we need to keep our focus on flood response, but that we should start thinking about recovery as well
* The superbag wall along South McClintock was opened to allow access to 4 properties while levels remain low enough
Flood info:
* Southern Lakes winter snow load was more than twice our average
* 19-March 2021, Yukon Energy (YEC) opened the locks at the Lewes River control structure (roughly 2 months early)
* YEC reopened the boat lock and removed the gates completely
* YEC removed driftwood from in front of the control structure last week and they have removed most of the gates
* YEC has dropped elevation of Schwatka by -0.95 m to try to increase flow through Miles Canyon
* Some roads are now flooded isolating access to some homes
* Bank erosion due to wave action is significant
* There remains a lot of uncertainty with all projections and we will need to monitor lake levels closely
* Latest public flood update from the response team: 11-Aug (<https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/env-flood-warning-southern-lakes-july-2-2021.pdf><https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/public_flood_update_-_july_15_fnl_1.pdf><https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/public_flood_update_-_july_18_fnl.pdf><https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/cs/public_flood_update_-_july_23_fnl.pdf><https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/public_flood_update_-_aug_2_fnl.pdf><https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/public_flood_update_-_aug_6_fnl.pdf>click here<https://yukon.ca/sites/yukon.ca/files/public_flood_update_-_aug_11_fnl.pdf>)
* As of 7-July the boil water advisory was expanded for Southern Lakes, Laberge, Kusawa and Takhini River (<https://yukon.ca/en/news/boil-water-advisory-residents-army-beach-and-south-mcclintock-private-wells-or-underground>click here<https://yukon.ca/en/news/boil-water-advisory-residents-southern-lakes-lake-laberge-kusawa-lake-and-takhini-river-areas>)
If you know of anyone else that would like to receive this update, please let me know. And if you have any questions / information about the flood response, please send them to me or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Best,
John
