British Columbia Assembly Elections, October 2024

Floods, October 2024 

A powerful atmospheric river (AR) brought heavy rainfall to coastal British Columbia on 18 October 2024, before moving down the coast. ARs are features in the lower troposphere—thousands of square km in length by hundreds of km in width—that transport water vapour from the tropics to the poles. While they provide beneficial contributions to water supplies in the mid latitudes, they are also a major contributor to flooding in North America (Corringham et al. 2022).  

Southern Vancouver Island recorded up to 300 millimeters (12 inches) of rain between 18 and 20 October, while the Vancouver metropolitan area on the mainland received up to 150 millimeters (six inches). The intense rainfall overwhelmed the city’s storm drain system, resulting in widespread flooding (NASA 2024; Chan et al. 2024). The rainstorm caused numerous trees and branches to fall on power lines, causing further disruptions (CBC 2024). There were two fatalities from mudslides (Weather Network 2024).  

Climate change is thought to contribute to atmospheric river flood damage, which increases exponentially with AR intensity. Therefore, even a modest shift towards higher-intensity ARs could have significant impacts on the built environment (Corringham et al. 2022).    

Impact on the electoral process  

The rainstorm struck British Columbia on election day, creating significant challenges for voters as many roads became flooded, making access to several polling stations difficult. In total, three polling stations remained closed throughout election day due to sustained power outages, while several others experienced temporary closures due to flooding and fallen trees on power lines (Elections BC n.d.). 

In Langley and on the Gulf Islands, power outages meant that voters had to cast their ballots manually, with the ballots being fed into electronic tabulators once power was restored (Gandham 2024).  

In Maple Ridge, voters were redirected to other polling locations, while residents in Dease Lake were urged to use assisted-telephone voting—a method typically reserved for voters with health conditions—due to the storm preventing election officials from reaching the polling station (Egan-Elliott 2024). 

Voter turnout for the 2024 assembly election was 58.45 per cent. This is an increase compared to 2020, when turnout was 53.86 per cent (Elections BC n.d.).