The wind sure can blow in Prince Rupert!

Don’t believe me? Check out this photo of a house lifted from its foundation in 1910. As the accompanying comment from a Facebook post confirms, it doesn’t just rain in Prince Rupert, it *blows*. —*BC Archives*

I’ve expressed my misgivings with Facebook in the past. It’s sort of a love-hate relationship. Okay, not really love or hate; let’s just say, I’ve become wary. You have to watch what you say on Facebook or you can get burned. I don’t mean idle chitchat, I mean when you post something that you mean to be informational as well as entertaining. In other words, the full beer, not just the suds.

Like history, for example. (What else would you expect me to write about?)

Something that you think is totally upfront, straightforward and obvious, can be totally misinterpreted or, worse (for whatever reason), twisted around to mean something else, something undesirable and/or offensive to others.

But lately—touch wood—I’ve been on a bit of a roll. Comments have been friendly sometimes fascinating. Like the response to this recent lightweight and casual post:

“In this 1910 BC Archives photo we see a house that was lifted from its foundation and left intact, but with its broken windows. Here’s hoping they had insurance.

Pretty simple, don’t you agree? It drew this great response from a reader whose name I shall respectfully withold. Referring to my headline, “The Wind Sure Can Blow...!” they wrote:

“Understatement of the century, lol. Growing up in Rupert in a old Victorian era house there, the winds would make even the newest of houses sway. The winds are so powerful, that the joke of the city which has the record for being the Rainiest city in Canada, is the “The Rain Falls Side Ways”, if you ever met me in the lower mainland I won’t even wear a hood in the rain storms down here as they are a simple rain shower to me. In Rupert Umbrellas are useless, they get ripped out of your hand, turned inside out, and the Rain really does fall sideways. Most houses there have to have 2 doors front and back, because you have Mudrooms and covered porches so that you can enter your home in the middle of a rainstorm and not cause your house to get soaked, as the rain will just fly right in. Roofing companies Thrive up there also, because it is common to replace your roof there every 2-4 years, the wind will rip shingles off, and in some cases rip the roof off. Winds have gotten so powerful there that in my life time 2-3 tanker ships have had their Anchor chain Broken and the ships get pushed and beached on the otherside of the harbour. The one thing you won’t worry about as much are trees crashing down as the trees are used to that sort of weather. The last time I went to Rupert with my Husband, who had never visited there before and did not beleive my mother and I about the rain falling sideways, we rounded the corner on the Skeena River near Work Channel Road, and it was like driving through a Waterfall, and was constant, our dog who is a bordercollie had to get a rainjacket cause he would be drenched otherwise. Its an insane location to live weather wise, but even in the worst weather there life still goes on as normal, where that weather in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland would stop the city dead in it’s tracks.

Thank you, Trevor! I passed through PR one November, years ago, and it wasn't blowing or raining. I guess I lucked out. I had no idea..... you really lucked out.

Trevor
Honestly living in the lower mainland now, I miss my lullaby of a rupert storm

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