Warm weather, heavy rains and ice in the river threaten Gingolx with flooding.

At 1:48 pm on
January 26/09 Les Clayton emailed this
message:

At 1:30 this date I got a call from Richard
Lincoln; he and Max Lincoln walked up the Kincolith creek to
the salmon enhancement location and from observation found the ice jam
the largest they have seen; from observation they estimate 50 feet wide; 10
feet high and about 350 feet long; they are very concerned and I mentioned that
I would bring this to your attention for next steps.

At about 9:30 am this morning (January 28/09), Alvin
Nelson called Les to update us on ice jam
situation. In attendance for the conference call was Alvin
Nelson from
the Gingolx Village Government office and from NLG, Les Clayton,
Mansell Griffin, Eric Grandison and Jim Stone.

Alvin advises
that it is very warm down there now, around 3 degrees above zero and has
started to rain. Jim Stone went up to the
Gingolx Hatchery first thing this morning and advised that what was ice
yesterday is now slush and water is running through. Mansell said this is good
as long as it keeps running through it is melting the ice jam
underneath. I advised them that Environment Canada weather website for this
area posted another Snowfall Warning at 4:21 am
for another 30 to 40 cm (15.74 inches) by Thursday morning. So this may mean
more rain for Gingolx area. Alvin
advises that their maintenance department will start clearing snow from the
ditches in the affected area and will do trenching where necessary. He also
said he would contact Nechako for delivery of gravel to
stockpile, at least 10 loads for starters. He said they don't have a proper
gravel truck for this.

I offered to download and email PDF copies of Flooding
Preparation and Emergency Evacuation documents to Alvin and Jim in Gingolx and
Jim would post these to nnkn.ca. Alvin
advises that he would meet with Nelson Clayton and Village Council later this
morning to update them on the situation.

From yesterday's conference call with Maurie Hurst of Provincial Emergency Program (PEP) in Terrace, Blair
Stewart, Nelson Clayton, Alvin Nelson,
Richard Benson, Les Clayton, Mansell
Griffin, Eric Grandison and Gingolx Village Government
maintenance department personnel, it was repeatedly emphasized that at no time
should anybody be put in danger of the ice jam
during the monitoring stage. The number one rule of Emergency Response Goal is: Provide for the safety and health of all
responders. This cannot be emphasized enough for the safety of all
involved. Do not take any chances.

Blair provided JPEG images taken on January 22/09 and these
are now posted on nnkn.ca in Photo Albums tab in a folder labeled Gingolx Ice
Jam, it will be the first folder you see when you go there. Jim also went on a
reconnaissance tour with Alvin Nelson and
Gingolx maintenance department personnel yesterday afternoon and took photos
and are now posted on nnkn.ca in the same folder. Photos of the Gingolx
bridge to the Government docks with the tide at 21.3 feet at about 3:30 pm is included and it was agreed that
there is enough clearance between the bridge and water level (freeboard) at the
highest tide to allow for ice debris to flow through if that suddenly happens. After
today the tides get smaller. Maurie suggested that monitoring of the ice jam
be increased to possibly hourly. Alvin
also advised that Gingolx residence are updated continually via Marine 6 on the
VHF radio phone.

We have just experienced problems with our email system, so
we will now post these updates on nnkn.ca with the ability for conference call
participants to correct errors and/or omissions. I will provide the written
updates and post to nnkn.ca after each conference call update.

Jim just Skyped me and is on his way back out for more
photos to post later to nnkn.ca and I reminded him to be extremely careful.

Another conference call is scheduled with Gingolx for later
today for update.

Submitted by:

Eric Grandison

Information Officer

Emergency Operations Centre

Nisga'a Lisims Government