Video captured last week by helicopter pilot Bastian Fleury offers a stunning glimpse into what surely would have been a horrifying experience to witness first hand.
But no one lives even close to the valley up Bute Inlet, where an estimated 7.7 million cubic metres of rock, mud, trees and glacial ice came down in a torrent Nov. 28.
“We flew up Bute Inlet and there was just more and more wood and finally when we got to the Southgate River that’s when we saw something had changed there,” said Fleury.
Fleury who flies for 49 North Helicopters had heard about debris in Bute Inlet so he flew up from Campbell River to take a look.
“Just devastation, lots of trees everywhere. Lots of sand, lots of mud,” he added.
It’s believed part of the Homathco Icefield might have broken free and fallen into a lake high in the mountains, about 12 kilometres from the ocean.
The resulting wave, geologists say, could have been 50 to 80 metres high then became a literal tsunami of debris down the mountainside — ripping apart a small river valley turning it into a huge muddy canyon.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw it,” that Homalco First Nation Chief Darren Blaney. “I was watching the helicopter footage and those trees looked so tiny from how high he was flying so that tells you how big it was.”
Blaney hopes to fly up to the area tomorrow. He’s pretty sure the Southgate River chum salmon spawning grounds have been wiped out.
“For us, salmon our culture, it’s our teachings and it’s the stewardship of our territory so so we have to figure out a plan to rebuild those stocks,” he said.
Another glimpse is from the water where the owner of Quest Water Taxi Leigh Nelson has seen tons of debris in the water first hand.
“Now that I know it was at the end of Bute Inlet and we’re talking 50 miles away, three days later we’re already seeing literal islands of wood coming out of there,” said Nelson.
He’s warning other boaters in that area to be careful.
Dean Stoltz
