VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Was at JR point parking lot yesterday and CRD has put 'temporary' no camping signs up related to recent BC Hydro concerns on seismic safety of area due to this dam. The temporary part is not the signage itself (looks quite official) but that they are going to further study the issue before allowing camping again. Not sure how enforced it will be.

There was security and CRD bylaw officers there tonight making sure everyone left at dusk.

guess I should read the message board too... discussion covered already I see!
but thanks for the updated.

ahhhh, excuse me but....when the seismic event occurs.....breaking the dam and all hell breaks loose....I think I would rather be cozy and asleep in my motorhome and die quickly than to be parked with my SUP or surfboard in the parking lot watching the mess come at me, helpless just the same.....and there will be more of us

How is prohibiting camping any safer than day use Like....there will be a warning, maybe a horn sounded, a summoned emergency response team delineating a speedy but orderly exit of the public from the area??....in 15 seconds? We better also close the highway then....

WTF will they come up with next jeezus

wtf? if you're there 8 hours of the day, then you're 2/3 LESS likely to get hit than if you're there 24 hours a day. Doesn't seem like rocket science.

Come on people. If the big on comes half of the old brick buildings in Victoria are going to fall down. Give it a rest.

Yup, and the reality is the activities you are parked at JR for in the first place are 100 times more dangerous and likely to kill you then IF an earthquake happens AND it just happens to be large AND the dam fails AND fails catastrophically enough to release a lot of water AND that water does what they think it will. That's a lot of IF's and contingent AND's.

But more importantly GWind, why'd you start this in "kiteboarding discussion"???!!!

tbrown wrote:wtf? if you're there 8 hours of the day, then you're 2/3 LESS likely to get hit than if you're there 24 hours a day. Doesn't seem like rocket science.

That logic is so flawed. You are 100% as likely to get hit if it happens during the day if you're there regardless whether you are there at night or not. The statistical probability it happens at night is no greater than day. So if they're willing to tolerate 200 people there during the day (as there was today) then why not a couple dozen at night?

We don't want to give the CRD any ideas.

The number I have heard is 6 minutes....that's how long you'd have to get to safety. So, if you're surfing when it goes, you're dead. I figure a kiter or windsurfer could maybe race out to sea and downwind and survive. Maybe.

But presumably day use visitors and workers at log sort are close enough to vehicle and not asleep, so *may* have wherewithal to get to safety.

They can't allow camping because of liability. If they legally condone it, and you die, then your estate would have a case for liability. If they say it is illegal and you do it anyway, then that's pretty much on you.

But moreso they can't allow camping because of politics. If they are buying out the houses then they can't have people on the same flood path being allowed to sleep overnight. And they can't have the houses because they can't have that risk on the books. And they can't decommission the dam because of the valuable power it generates. And they can't repair or rebuild the dam in that location, there is no engineering that can possibly withstand a 9.0 quake 40km from the fault line. And so ... no camping.

So put up a sign "camp at your own risk" with the danger explained and done!

For comparisons sake I recall a person getting killed in their sleep by a tree which fell on their tent in wells Gray PP a few years back... Which is exactly 100% more people then have died camping at JR. That campground is still open.

See Point 2: Politics. It is more difficult for BCH to kick out the residents if the site allows campers.

The resolution with the house owners may well involve buying out the properties but allowing them to remain living there at their own liability. That's one of the options they have asked for. Once that's resolved, then camping will come back.

Keep in mind too...once the fuss is past, then people can go back to doing whatever the hell they want at JR, camping illegally, shooting guns, drunk boating, crazy huge bonfires, kiting in foolishly low winds, SUPing unbelievably awkwardly, and other crimes against humanity and nature. The Man doesn't get past Otter Point very often ... as long as no ruckus you dowhatchalike.

You forgot knee paddling the point with an extendable kayak paddle.

A waiver