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Breaking up is never easy. Not what you think...

Sahara

Sahara

FBBO Gold Member
FBBO Gold Member
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Location
Way North Canada. Polar Bear shaped license plates
Every year in the north there is a magical time called breakup. It’s when the ice on the rivers breaks up, and is pushed out into the lakes. The problem is that the lakes are still frozen, with ice about four feet thick.
It is always a time of great stress because if the ice jams catastrophic flooding can happen quickly. Here in Hay River we flood an average of once every five to seven years.
There is no way to predict what will happen so every year there is a period of around 48 hours when we live on pins and needles, on evacuation alert.
Wife and I, and pretty much the entire town were driving around watching the ice flow.
If any of you remember my post last winter when I posted the minus forty temps and showed my Jeep parked on the River, well the photo is of the spot in the River where my Jeep was parked. What a difference a few months can make.
A7558D7F-51AA-42CE-8B70-9342CD05697A.jpeg
View attachment 1107128 View attachment 1107128
 
I was stationed in Alaska, a mere 100 yards from the Yukon River. It was 3/4-mile across where our radar site was, and Galena was just 10 miles down the road. The Spring I was there, the ice flows dammed up, and flooded Galena with over five feet of icy-cold river water. That was a huge mess, but was cleaned up rather quickly, as Galena was a fighter base, and jets need to pull alert duty. Hearing those massive ice chunks crash into each other was an amazing experience, I have to say.
 
I lived along a branch of the Zumbro river in SE Minnesota years ago. Gorgeous spot we thoroughly enjoyed until one spring when ice jams caused the river to leave its banks. We went from a nice early spring day to the house and out buildings surrounded by water in less than 20 minutes. Terribly nerve wracking couple of days. Fortunately the water didn't get high enough and there was minimal damage to the buildings.

I never really enjoyed spring thaws after that, always wondering if this would be the year our luck ran out. A few years later I decided I had to do something, so was able to determine the 100 year flood level from a bridge nearby me. Took elevation readings across the fields till I got to my front yard and then had dirt moved around the property to create a levee 3' higher than the 100 year level. Seeded all the dirt and it looked pretty presentable when it was done. It was laid out to work with the river current and keep water flowing around/away from the buildings.

Never had the opportunity to see if my plan would work, as I ended up selling the place and moving some time later.

The guy who bought it from me for some unknown reason removed one portion of the levee, from the upstream section. A few years later he did have flooding. The current filled up the area inside the levee to the point water was flowing over the top. He'd actually made things worse for himself and had more water in the house than he'd have had without any levee. I've often been tempted to stop in and find out what he was thinking, but common sense prevailed and I've stayed away.

I still get that sick feeling in my stomach looking at photos like yours and remembering when.
 
31 years in the Air Force, and this is the first I've ever heard of this place. Interesting
 
Y'all lowlanders have fun with that. We'll just hang out up here on the ridge. :thumbsup:
 
69a100 said:
Why would you live by a river that floods you out every year??? That's just stupid!
Click to expand...
Yeah, it’s why we have a old and new town. The old town flooded in ‘62, wiped the place out so they started new town. For some reason people still build new houses in old town.
There’s a few stipulations; you must build at least four feet in the air, etc.
A building lot there costs around $10k compared to over $80k for new town, a house can be around $130k compared to $350k for over here.
But believe it or not, it’s the coolest part of town. Pretty much anything goes, the neighbours leave you alone, and it’s a better vibe. I’m in the most relaxed part of new town but I still get bad looks for having dandelions in my uncut lawn, and it’s only a matter of time before someone mentions the deer head in front of the garage that I haven’t tossed out yet.
 
Global warming my butt! I seen lots of ice... I’ll stay where it’s warm and think about you in the cold! Lol
 
So here we are a few days later, the situation is very much worse. The water is still rising and the ice has jammed solid for more then a mile. Half of my town is under water. Down stream the entire village of Jean Marie River was under water. Part of Fort Simpson is under water.
As such, that’s not terribly unusual for here. What’s odd is that generally breakup is over in about a day; flood or not it’s done in about 24 hours. We’re now into it for more then 48 and the water is still rising. Very, very strange.
Great Slave Lake is one of the largest and is the deepest lakes in North America. At 450 miles long and 100 miles wide it holds a lot of water. Never, in recorded history has it been this high. And that’s most of the problem: we plan around the River flooding. It’s part of life here. But the lake has never been this high so there was no way to plan for this.


Great
16C89A5F-7C6C-4591-B86E-B674175E0CAA.jpeg
 
Use dynamite and break up the ice dam?
 
It’s too big. They’ve tried that in the past and it didn’t work. We’re talking about an ice damn about eight to ten feet thick, over a mile long by at least a quarter mile wide.
The problem is that there no place for it to go. The lake that it is supposed to go into still is covered in at least four feet of solid, unbroken ice.

What usually happens is that the ice comes down the River, hits the ice on the lake, and stops. As the water level rises the ice floats on top until it can go on top of the lake ice. This repeats over and over until all of the River ice is on the lake ice.
This year, because the lake is full the water is overflowing the lake banks.
The water is supposed to flow from the big lake into the McKenzie River and ultimately into the ocean. But the McKenzie is still full of ice, and it has record high water as well. So the water is literally just flowing over the land.
 
Last edited:
Sahara said:
Every year in the north there is a magical time called breakup. It’s when the ice on the rivers breaks up, and is pushed out into the lakes. The problem is that the lakes are still frozen, with ice about four feet thick.
It is always a time of great stress because if the ice jams catastrophic flooding can happen quickly. Here in Hay River we flood an average of once every five to seven years.
There is no way to predict what will happen so every year there is a period of around 48 hours when we live on pins and needles, on evacuation alert.
Wife and I, and pretty much the entire town were driving around watching the ice flow.
If any of you remember my post last winter when I posted the minus forty temps and showed my Jeep parked on the River, well the photo is of the spot in the River where my Jeep was parked. What a difference a few months can make.View attachment 1107127View attachment 1107128 View attachment 1107128
Click to expand...
Sorry, I thought this was a tribute thread to Swedish Pop group ABBA. (Winter scenes and all)



:)
 
call that gretta....give her a mop and let her clean up after the Ice flood....
 
Always had the hots for the blonde babe in ABBA. Yum.

R6d3793da2bfe72c3c9e6b077bd07936b?rik=S7ymJQ7z3QfqsQ&pid=ImgRaw.jpg
 
I’m in Commiefornia, we don’t have water, let alone rivers. LOL!!
 
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