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Icejam flooding reported in Miworth

The warm weather so far this has resulted in limited flooding of properties in Miworth, although no homes were impacted.
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Some homes in Morning Place experienced flooding earlier in January as a result of an ice jam in the Nechako river.

The warm weather so far this has resulted in limited flooding of properties in Miworth, although no homes were impacted.

Lyle Larsen, a senior flood safety officer with the province's water stewardship agency, said an ice jam along Island Park Drive resulted in moderate flooding that came close to some homes. The waters have since receded. This followed flooding that occurred on Morning Place in early January as a result of an ice jam.

"The homes themselves were not impacted, but the flood waters were pretty close to the homes. They were just within 50 ft of the homes. The channel at Morning Place is bank-to-bank ice jam. The channel at Island Park Drive is bank-to-bank ice jam as well," Larsen said.

Larsen said the flooding was moderate and no state of emergency has been issued by local authorities. He said the flows are far lower than those seen during periods of more severe flooding, such as what occurred in the winter of 2007-08, when a large ice jam caused significant property damage after breaching the banks of the Nechako river.

"If flows are greater than 200 metres cubed per second, there's a potential for serious ice jam flooding. And that's what we saw in 2007/2008. The flows then were around 270 metres cubed per second. Right now we're flows at around 180. We're sort of in that moderate flooding category," Larsen said.

According to Larsen, ice jams are a relatively common occurrence in Prince George. Over the last 100 years, 36 jams have been reported along the Nechako River.

Flood safety personnel will continue to monitor the Nechako this week, as temperatures are expected to rise about freezing.