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There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

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Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#131

Post by elihu »

dn3500 wrote: post #64
foofoo55 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Vancouver sits in a little triangle of land in the south-west (bottom-left?) corner of Canada, completely surrounded by mountains to the north and east. We heavily rely on the highway south through the state of Washington.

Could you take the ferry to Prince Rupert and get out that way?

That's a really long route and the ferries don't carry that many people compared to a road.

(I once took a ferry from Prince Rupert to Skidegate on the Queen Charlotte islands and back. It was an 800 passenger ferry, temporarily replacing a 300 passenger ferry I think on the same route which was taken out of service for maintenance. The ferry in question was the ill-fated Queen of the North, which ran aground on a different route a few years later and sank.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Queen_of_the_North

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#132

Post by nradov »

shagie wrote: post #107
randomfool wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're super common now for backcountry hikers and trail runners. The plans start at $15 a month on a per-month plan (no lock in). There has been speculation that Apple would build this into their phones, which IMHO would be a killer feature. Imagine having an emergency feature that could be used anywhere on earth. How much would you pay per text? $5 per text message would be an absolute bargain in many of these rem…

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Garmin inReach devices are very small. They only support messaging, not voice phone calls, so the antennas are short and battery life is pretty good. It could be completely possible to integrate that functionality into a large smartphone.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#133

Post by amatecha »

lhorie wrote: post #100

For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…

I live in Vancouver - my coworkers and family were very aware of this, watching footage online and exclaiming at the brutal nature of the weather and landslides we experienced yesterday. Never seen this many roads closed in BC in my nearly 4 decades living here.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#134

Post by cf100clunk »

skrebbel wrote: post #105
lhorie wrote: post #100

For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…

I'm surprised there's no shortages yet because trucks can't get to the city. Or does Vancouver import most non-regional goods from the US (and not the rest of Canada) anyway?

Vancouver is one of Canada's major seaports and air transport hubs, so there's that. Still, road, rail, and ferry disruption is extremely troublesome.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#136

Post by cf100clunk »

bobthepanda wrote: post #113
skrebbel wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm surprised there's no shortages yet because trucks can't get to the city. Or does Vancouver import most non-regional goods from the US (and not the rest of Canada) anyway?

the Trans Canada Highway in some parts is an undivided 2-lane road, so it wouldn't be surprising for freight to choose to take something like I-90 instead, though you would have to go through border checks.

The Trans Canada Highway from Kamloops to Hope was largely superceded as a trucking route by the more capacious and direct Coquihalla Highway after 1986. Now the Coquihalla is in dire condition.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#137

Post by btilly »

It looks like rail lines are also cut off.

This is kind of a big deal for shipping. Approximately $200 billion goods/year travel through Vancouver, including millions of (metric) tonnes of grain bound for Asia, and imports of Chinese goods bound for the rest of Canada. Most of that traffic now needs to find another route until repairs are made.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#138

Post by lhorie »

rsync wrote: post #112
lhorie wrote: post #100

For just a bit of context/anecdata, I'm talking to my brother who lives in Vancouver and he wasn't even aware this was a problem. The road closure[0] on hwy 1 near Abbotsford/Chilliwack is a good one hour drive away from Vancouver core[1]. So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way. He…

"So while it sounds noteworthy for an entire city be technically flooded in, unless you were driving to the boonies, you're probably not actually impacted in any meaningful way." Where do truck shipments come into Vancouver from ? Is it all through the US/CA border ?

I wouldn't worry about shipments into town. Suez was out for like a week and the world managed more or less just fine. LA port is backlogged to the wazoo but nobody is starving because of it. My understanding is that the Vancouver situation is only 1-2 days old so far, so there's probably not that much reason for alarm unless damage to every single artery turn out to be serious. Worst comes to worst, the US road is still open.

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#139

Post by austincheney »

It seems November is a hard month of rain in certain areas. When I was in Kuwait in 2018 they had a record flood on November 4th greater than anything in the modern history going back to the late 18th century when they civilized the area. Then on the 14th there was a flood that was 3x greater than the one on the 4th.

I was also reading that this week southern Egypt is having an extreme problem with flooding that killed 3 soldiers.

There are a bunch of videos on YouTube about it: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=kuwait+november...

Re: There is currently no way to drive between Vancouver and the rest of Canada

#140

Post by mikestew »

rubylark wrote: post #29

A different article[1] I read with a similar headline has this claim: > To leave the Lower Mainland of BC, you would have to use Highway 99, Highway 1, or the Coquihalla. I'm not at all familiar with the area. Are there really only 3 roads between Vancouver and the rest of Canada without going through Washington? That seems like such a low number. [1] https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/highway-closures-flooding-mu...

I mean this with no snark at all: go look at a map of BC. For a lot of that province, three roads going in and out is luxury, must be a big city or something. Go not terribly far north of Vancouver, and for a lot of populated areas there is the road.
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