Everyone likes to muck around with nature, and draining swamps was number one a long time ago. When we engineers get involved, they design for what they call 'the hundred year flood'.
Unless you want to get cheap about it. They had the design flood which happened in 1894, but they said 'Crap that's too expensive. Let's design for the 10 year flood.' Or better yet, let's not design at all, and just throw in a 'handyman special'.
That's what they did, and threw in a small pump system, that was good for 'most of the time'. There was insurance, right? And so, they got hit by a big one.
A big flood is just like a big earthquake, a lot of things have to come together. This flood was caused by unusual ocean conditions that caused a series of tropical plumes to hit BC directly. They could have tracked the odds of a major flood by watching soil saturation. Maybe they did, but who's going to pull the 'run away' trigger? Nobody. It's the same for the early warning of earthquakes. If you can make it 'automatic' then nobody risks their heiny.
Away from the coast, the major flood usually comes from a stalled storm. Normally, storms just zoom over us, and they all have enough water to flood any place. But, once in a while they'll stop for a few days.
Of course, the warmies are all over this. Good for them! They need something to keep them warm.
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