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Comment by Kluny | Hacker News Reader

Almost everyone in Vancouver, Vancouver Island, all over BC really, has flooded basements and other stuff to deal with. My school closed down due to power outages, for example. The road to the local landfill has washed out. Half of my classmates were without power last night, and one of them is on the wrong side of a mountain pass and will miss class today. Our teacher has decided not to bother trying to get to campus and we're back to Zoom school.

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I wouldn’t say almost everyone; majority of people are fine but there’s definitely many people who have to deal with flooding and water damage.

Itt: People telling about how the flooding has directly and severely impacted their lives, and commenters who got lucky explaining how it's actually not a big deal.

Don't let empathy blind you from an accurate assessment though.

I mean I live in the lower mainland and I know exactly 0 people who have personally experienced any damage or loss. Given that I have friends all over the Lower Mainland and Interior BC and family up and down Vancouver Island it’s a decent sample size.

I have empathy for those who are going through hell right now but I’m just pointing out that your assessment of “nearly everyone” is way off base.

Meanwhile I’ve got relatives evacuated from Merritt, classmates who won’t be able to attend class for a week, and almost everyone I know lost power over the weekend. Facebook is full of people asking for fans and pumps to dry out their basements (including people I know personally). You say look at the bigger picture but you’re counting your personal experience as the best indicator of it. I’d suggest the news is showing the bigger picture.

Yes some areas are devastated and cut off and have a long, hard road ahead but that still doesn’t mean “nearly everyone” in the province had issues. Again; vast majority of people were fine; some areas were hit incredibly hard and other areas had minor issues but the majority watched it come and go with zero consequences.

The news is a bad example because they are clearly going to focus on the places that were hit the hardest. It’s not a very good story to say “everything in X area is absolutely fine”.

I spent an hour and a half today tracking down and explaining how to use sump and transfer pumps to a friend of mine near Mt Vernon, WA. I've lived in a place that floods for almost 9 years so I take for granted that people know how siphons and various pumps work.

There was only two pumps available in all of whatcom county, from what I saw. Even the harbor fright was out of everything.

Btw if you don't have a pit to put a sump pump in, you want a transfer pump that self primes. The prices are insane right now, but generally $60-100 for 300GPH 100VAC. If you're willing to be careful and mitigate damage to dirt from water, you can dig a hole for a 5 gallon bucket and drop a sump pump in it. You might have a wee bit of standing water under your house but it's better than 3" of water.

My house is 6' above grade, and 3' above the pad, so I don't worry much, once when it rained 28" in three days there was 3" of water on the road out front but I didn't need to go anywhere. A couple days later I did a drive about and so many people had their homes flooded near the farmlands.

Stay safe and pay attention to your local authorities about closures and warnings, and don't cross water on the road, especially if you've never seen the road dry. A large flooding can wash away the road, too, so just stay off the roads if you can!

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