Headlines from the past is a recurring feature looking back at stories we've covered over the past 40+ years.
A January rainstorm 20 years ago moved mountains in Port Coquitlam.
The deluge dumped 104 mm in 24 hours and caused a landslide on Mary Hill Lane that brought down power lines and blocked Shaughnessy Street as well as swamped the railway underpass on the Mary Hill Bypass.
The slide littered the Shaughnessy Street with debris and about 30 dump truck loads of mud and dirt saturated by the rain and melt of earlier snow.
The blockage exacerbated traffic delays already caused by the flooded underpass and other roadways covered with water from overflowing ditches and backed-up storm sewers.
“We keep pumping water into a place where it’s not going to get away,” said Rod Fru, the president of the Mainroad Group of Companies charged with maintaining the railroad underpass.
The flooding problems and two traffic accidents involving six vehicles contributed to a traffic jam that quickly engulfed much of the Tri-Cities.
Roy Juliusson, the manager of Coquitlam Towing, told the Tri-City News his trucks were running five hours late attending to stalls in Port Coquitlam.
“We’re never that long,” he said. “But we get stuck in traffic too.”
The Tri-City News has covered civic affairs, local crime, festivals, events, personalities, sports and arts in Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody since 1983. Bound back issues of the paper are available at the Coquitlam Archives, while digital versions of several past years can be found at issuu.com.
