Windstorm at king tide batters Vancouver waterfront, ferry sailings cancelled

The combination of a storm at the peak of a king tide Friday morning flooded parks and facilities from Vancouver’s seawall in Stanley Park and Sunset Beach to the Kitsilano Beach Pool, and caused additional damage to the Jericho Pier.

At its peak, it felt like the winds were strong enough to push your breath back into your lungs, and drove waves with enough force to lift up a half-dozen top stones from the seawall to scatter them along the path adjacent to the barge beached at Sunset Beach by the last major storm Nov. 15.

B.C. Ferries cancelled some sailings between Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay due to the weather and B.C. Hydro reported power failures that cut electricity to more that 25,000 customers.

West Vancouver’s Ferry Building Gallery at the foot of 14th Street remained high and dry during Friday’s storm that flooded the rest of the district’s waterfront parks, thanks to some timely preparations.

“We are accustomed and prepared for this combination of king tides and winds,” said Donna Powers, the district’s communications manager, “I would say today’s event is probably the most significant we’ve experienced yet, but it’s not unexpected.”

That was the reason raising the level of the historic 1912 Ferry Building was made part of a heritage restoration project, which kept it “one bright, dry spot,” while the rest of West Van’s Seawalk from the Dundarave Pier to Ambleside Park near Park Royal Mall were flooded.

“We have’t been able to assess damage yet, we need to wait for everything to calm down,” Powers said in West Van, “but we anticipate there will likely be damage all along the Seawalk.”