Seeing Niagara Falls from All Angles

A boat taking tourists around the Canadian side of the Falls

The last time I visited Niagara Falls was over 25 years ago so it was very interesting to see how this famous tourist landmark has developed in the intervening years.

This time traveling with my relatives from Australia, they wanted to do the full Niagara experience so we did practically everything there is to do there.

Watching water fall over the edge

We joined a tour at 10am which started at Skylon Tower, an observation tower that is 160 metres tall. On the ground floor we took the usual touristy pictures against a green screen (look scared going over the Falls in a barrel!) and then went up the tower to see Niagara Falls from a bird's eye view.

It's quite the sight seeing the scale of the Falls from above, though the Canadian side which is horse-shoe-shaped is much more dramatic than the American side. The Canadian side is 57m high, the American is 21-30m high, while the Canadian side is obviously much wider at 790m, the American side is 320m wide.

Our tour guide later told us interesting tales about daredevils who have gone over the Falls -- some 5,000 -- but only a few have survived. 

The first person to go over was a woman, Annie Edson Taylor in 1901. She was widowed and poor, and thought that if she went over the Falls, she could become famous. Taylor first tested her wooden barrel by putting her cat in it and it went down and survived, so she figured she would too.

She did survive with just a scratch on her forehead! However, fortune did not follow Taylor's fame and she died poor.

The American side of the falls

Other people thought they would do it for attention, and chose the Canadian side because it was much more dramatic.

However in 1951, after the death of one daredevil, going down the Falls became illegal and now anyone caught doing it will be fined US$25,000 and your children will have to foot the bill if you don't survive.

We then walked towards the casino, where below it we took a funicular a very short distance to get behind the Canadian side of the Falls. We were issued yellow plastic ponchos so that we wouldn't get too wet and went down a tunnel, where we could peek at the Falls from the point where the water goes over the edge.

It's quite a dramatic sight to see, the clear, blue-coloured water, thanks to the glacial water mixed with limestone, dolomite and shale. The Falls are also causing erosion, as tens of thousands of years ago it was further up, but it has since moved over 10 kilometres south. Both governments have mitigated fast erosion by diverting the water at night and in the winter months so it doesn't erode the stone and rock too much.

Getting drenched up close to Niagara Falls

Then we took the poncho off and walked back towards Skylon Tower and past it, and we were issued red plastic ponchos before getting on the boat. Our guide advised us to stand on the bottom right side of the boat as it will turn counter-clockwise to head back and we can have a panoramic view.

However, as we got closer to the Canadian falls, we were starting to get wet very fast! My face and sunglasses were so wet, and my windbreaker was absolutely drenched. I had to periodically check to see if my phone was still working (it was). Meanwhile the roar of the Falls also demonstrated how strong the water falling was -- more than 168,000 m3 of water goes over the cliff every minute!

A fun fact is that around 4.9 million kilowatts of hydroelectricity is generated by Niagara Falls, which powers some 3.8 million households.

There's dramatic lighting at night

On the boat we saw the American side of the Falls, which is also called Bridal Veil Falls. Separating the American and Canadian sides is Goat Island, which at one time was owned by a farmer who kept goats there. Now it is a park.

It was quite the experience being on the boat ride! Luckily the weather was relatively warm so while we were drenched, our clothes and shoes dried off (except for slightly wet socks) quite quickly. 

Our tour was over, so we walked up Clifton Hill, an eclectic mix of dinosaur-themed pitch and putt, go-karts, shops selling ice cream with rainbow sprinkles, fast-food restaurants and the Niagara Skywheel where passengers sit in gondola cabins.

We split a sub sandwich as a snack before heading out for outlet shopping, dinner at Peller Estates before returning to Niagara Falls to watch the fireworks!

Fireworks on the American side

After 9pm multicoloured lights are shone on both the Canadian and American Falls, and then an hour later is a five-minute fireworks show near the American Falls. Lots of people are drawn to the nightly event and it was great to watch, even if it was only a few minutes long. We joked it was the best $5 we spent on entertainment (though it was actually for parking).

So we saw Niagara Falls during the day and night, from above and below, and right on the water. 

It may be a while before I go back there again!

Bomb Cyclone Hits Vancouver

Some fallen trees on the walking paths in Pacific Spirit Park

I have a good excuse for not being able to blog last night -- there was a bomb cyclone going through our area, which caused a blackout on various parts of Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

A bomb cyclone is not a made-up term, but one that weather forecasters have used for a while, but is rarely seen here. It's when masses of warm and cool air collide to create spiralling winds, and in this case they were swirling counter-clockwise, and there was also a rapid atmospheric pressure drop over 24 millibars (the unit to measure air pressure) in 24 hours. 

There were strong winds up to 70km/hr last night

Last night it formed around 400 km west of Tofino, BC and then went up Vancouver Island recording winds of up to 170km. It caused severe damage in terms of fallen trees and lots of electricity outages that are still ongoing as it is hard for BC Hydro crews to get to these areas (with the fallen trees on roads and highways).

Winds of up to 70km/h blew into Vancouver. Last night we had an early dinner in a restaurant, and when we came out just after 8pm there were strong gusts and some rain, but we didn't think too much of it. However, when we got closer to home we could see blocks of completely dark homes, and one of them was ours.

There wasn't much we could do except light up some candles, turn on flashlights and go to bed, around 10pm.

The power went back on at 1.15am... how do I know? Because a neighbour's house alarm went off, and was not immediately turned off... and then it went off again 30 minutes later. 

A lot of twigs and branches on the ground

Needless to say this morning I didn't get enough sleep!

I ventured out late morning to Pacific Spirit Park to survey the damage and while there were lots of twigs and branches on the ground, it was sad to see several trees had fallen overnight -- the ones along the walking paths. It will take the park rangers a few days to clear these routes.

The Day After the Fire

The blackened skeletal frame of the building was left

This morning the area where the massive fire erupted last night was still cordoned off, with firefighters still on the scene, putting out any smouldering fires, while BC Hydro crews worked overnight and into the morning to restore electricity to a few hundred people.

Bits of burnt embers spread far

The crane that had collapsed in the fire was still lying on the street this morning so traffic was diverted for most of the day, while 81 people who were evacuated had to spend the night at the nearby Crofton House School. Even though some people's homes were not damaged by the fire, firefighters deemed them unsafe to return just yet, though they were able to go in and retrieve some essentials and stay in a hotel.

Meanwhile British Columbia work regulator Work Safe BC was at the site of the fire to investigate how the blaze happened and their work is ongoing.

After I returned from a lunch appointment downtown, I walked around the neighbourhood to see how far the embers had spread. I could still see bits of black burnt out embers on the ground as far as 27th Avenue and Camosun, near St George's School. 

One person near the school reported 10 holes in their deck from the fiery embers!

Another neighbour wondered if these black embers were safe to just dispose of because to him (a retired engineer), they looked like burnt out chunks of foam insulation...

Embers across the street on 34th Ave

Health concerns were the last things on people's minds... people were more concerned what had happened and what was going to happen to the construction site. It was confirmed the gas lines had been installed, which explains the large explosions, but other than that it may take days or weeks to find out how it all started...

Dramatic Dinnertime Inferno

The fire caused the crane to collapse and fall onto the street

Just as we were sitting down to dinner at home tonight, around 6.30pm, I heard four big booms, explosions. Soon after I could hear sirens.

I went out the door to see other neighbours walking over to see what was going on. We went to Dunbar Street and could see a giant plume of smoke. As we walked towards it, we could see large, angry flames. Even though we were blocks away I could feel the heat already.

Smoke smouldering on the roof

It looked like it was coming from the construction site where a multi-storey seniors' home was being built, and it was completely engulfed in flames.

Many people continued to make their way closer to 41st Avenue, but a South Asian man walking towards us said the embers were so hot it was hard for him to breathe and told us to stay away.

I took a few pictures and then went back home and noticed some black chunks on our lawn -- they were blackened embers that had flown from that fire to our place several blocks away.

After eating a bit of dinner I could hear shouts outside and went out again. This time it was our neighbour's roof that was smouldering! The family of three, including their adult son were outside. The wife having a video call with relatives and telling them that someone knocked on their house to tell them their roof was on fire, while the son had his phone glued to his ear, talking to his friends.

A firetruck was already there, with firefighters suited up. They got their ladder out and climbed up to the roof with a hose to put the fire out. One of the fire officials advised us to check our properties to see if anything was smouldering and I looked over our roof twice to make sure. While there was no smoke, there were lots of black chunks of burnt out embers lying on the ground and bits of white material too.

Burnt out embers 

One neighbour said a construction crane melted where the massive fire was and on X (formerly Twitter) I found the footage -- the crane collapsed from the heat and fell across the street onto a house, while burning embers caused a house to catch on fire as well.

The crane falling on the street had taken down trolley bus wires and electricity wires, causing a power outage in the area. 

Later in the evening we drove by trying to get a look, but the area was still blocked off. 

As far as we know there were no deaths or injuries, though firefighters suffered minor ones.

Thank goodness everyone is safe and accounted for. A lot of drama in the neighbourhood this evening!

It wasn't the only burning inferno -- another building in east Vancouver was also on fire. An abandoned apartment building at 414 East 10th Avenue was in flames -- a year after fire had displaced 70 people.

Living in "Rotten-Tail" Buildings

Unfinished, and yet people live in buildings like this

There's a severe housing crisis in China -- millions of people have poured their hard-earned savings into apartments, hoping they can at least live in their biggest purchase, and that their property will appreciate in time.

But now developers have run out of cash to finish the buildings and their clients, the buyers, have run out of patience.

Some have staged protests at developers' or banks' offices, or refused to pay mortgages on their "rotten-tail buildings" -- or they have moved in.

People that McDonnell spoke to in Xi'an

The BBC's Stephen McDonnell went to visit some people who did just that in Xi'an.

It's a nondescript brown building with no windows, no electricity, no running water, and yet up to 200 people live there.

"We used up all our savings to buy our apartments," says one man. "It's been five years and we can't live in them. We can't bear it any longer."

He said it's been financially hard because of the Covid-19 pandemic, making it difficult to make money, and yet there are still car and mortgage payments that must be made.

"I feel helpless, I don't want to live this way, but we've no where to go," says a young man whose two young children, six and eight years old also live there. 

The residents get water in giant jugs from elsewhere, and cook in a communal kitchen. Periodically they can get a bit of electricity from solar panels. 

How will Xi solve this problem, Covid-19 related

One middle-aged woman told McDonnell that they cook whatever they are good at, or whatever they want to eat and share it with others. "We're like one big family," she says with a smile.

McDonnell wanted to ask them more, but then the police showed up and shooed him and his cameraman away.

There are so many more questions -- what do they do for toilets? Showers? How can they live with no windows and what about when winter sets in?

Apparently after McDonnell's visit, the residents were told construction would resume, but they were not convinced...