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A number of boats ran aground in Vancouver’s False Creek early Wednesday morning amid a windstorm.
Thousands across the region lost power due to the storm, with gusts of more than 100 km/h recorded overnight and trees falling down across the Lower Mainland.
CBC News reporters who went to False Creek on Wednesday morning noticed at least 10 boats that had run aground near Heather Marina and along the shore elsewhere.
It’s led to calls for governments to step up and deal with the problem of derelict boats along the water body.
The wind and rains Tuesday night in B.C.’s Lower Mainland made for a harrowing night for those on the water, including people living on boats in False Creek, and those with boats moored in local marinas. Liam Britten spoke to those who weathered the storm.
“We had a gust of 45 knots last night. That’s just sub-hurricane strength. And the water is moving in all directions,” said Zaida Schneider, a former CBC journalist and member of the False Creek Friends Society, speaking at Heather Marina.
“These docks, you couldn’t have stood on them here last night because it was, you know, it’s just maelstrom.”
Brian Proctor, an Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist, said that Point Atkinson in West Vancouver recorded wind gusts of 102 km/h early Wednesday morning.
“Even the [Vancouver] airport reported … 76 kilometres an hour,” the forecaster said.
Those high winds wreaked havoc on many boats that were moored in False Creek.
Rusalka Pierce, who lives aboard her boat, was checking for possible damage Wednesday morning as a number of boats were stuck in the marina.
She says that some people who live on their boats do so because they lost their jobs and couldn’t afford to live elsewhere, but most who do are responsible and clean up after themselves.
Numerous boats at Vancouver’s False Creek have been left derelict for a long time, with some sinking and others washing ashore. As Belle Puri reports, the cost of removing the vessels is high, and often relies on taxpayer dollars.
“We try and do as best we can. We can’t control stuff like this. We can’t control people who just come and leave their boats here,” she said.
“It’s the people that come and leave their boats here on anchor and [do] not come back for months and months and months. They’re the ones — they take us out.”
Schneider was critical of boat owners who abandoned their boats along False Creek, and said taxpayers would be responsible for any cleanup that ensued.
“So far, we haven’t seen any loss of life, but it’s inevitable that someone is going to get hurt,” he said.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Coast Guard said that it observed no visible pollution at Heather Civic Marina on Wednesday morning, but rescuers worked to free entangled vessels and re-anchor them.
Schneider says that there are 21 separate government agencies that have jurisdiction over parts of False Creek.
He called for the appointment of a harbour master to regulate the boats that are moored there, and ensure they have liability insurance.
“We need to have much more responsibility, and some government agency to step forward, [and] say, ‘OK, we see the what the problem is, we’re going to start planning for the future protection of False Creek,'” he said.
