(Abbotsford) The game has not yet been won in southern British Columbia, where the weather is still poor. Another storm hit Sunday, causing a yo-yo effect on the Sumas Plain, where the water level rises and falls with rainfall.
In the late afternoon, the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation announced the closure of the Trans-Canada Highway between Abbotsford and Chilliwack, fearing further overflows on the region’s main highway route.
The Nooksack River remained the main source of concern Sunday in Abbotsford, in the south of the province.
This stream that crosses the border between Canada and the United States overflowed on the American side, in the state of Washington, earlier in the day. Abbotsford Mayor Henry Braun was bracing for the worst in the event that another flood spilled over into the Sumas Plain.
“We are as ready as we can be,” he repeated during his daily press briefing. According to the mayor, thanks to the work carried out in the last days, the dike supposed to protect the plain is in better condition than it was before the first flood. The only thing we miss is for the rain to stop. But we have no control over it. We can’t stop the rain. ”
Very early Sunday morning, the City of Abbotsford issued an evacuation order for the Huntingdon neighborhood, located on the border with the United States. A warning that residents of the neighborhood seemed to take with a grain of salt when passing through Press.
A few curious people came to check the inventory of fixtures on 2e Avenue, from where you can see the houses on the American side. A resident of the neighborhood said that many people would not leave until they saw the water arrive on their doorstep. Across the street, a woman was doing her morning jog as police and paramedics came to evacuate a woman in a wheelchair.
In the Sumas Plain, Sandy Otto redoubled his efforts in the hope of protecting the house where his mother lives. The man was busy moving stones with his shovel to prevent water from spilling into the residence on the mountainside. The stream that normally flows right next to it has turned into a real torrent that overflows through the trees.
“It’s more the water that comes from the mountains that worries me this time than the flooding in the plain,” says Mr. Otto. There I am afraid for my mother’s house. ”
The water flows in fact abundantly from the heights, has been able to observe Press. In this part of the plain, however, the level seems to have decreased since the day before. We can see new vehicles that were not visible or gasoline tanks. However, authorities expected the water level in the Sumas Plain to rise due to heavy rainfall over the weekend.
A few minutes away, a family simulates an evacuation drill aboard a canoe. Impossible to access their home by road: they can nevertheless dock with their neighbor. “The children are anxious, the parents do an exercise to reassure them”, explains one of the neighbors crossed by Press.
A few houses away, Herman Hystek, a colossus who looks like a football player, considers himself lucky. The man, who owns a garage door installation business, was partially flooded. Water managed to get into his studio, but his house next door was spared.
Her neighbor was less fortunate. The residence she has lived in for 56 years was completely flooded, says Hystek. A pump drained the water from the basement on Sunday morning.
“Even though we knew we lived in a floodplain, we had never seen it before, a storm like this. My brother-in-law who has a farm further away has lost everything. ”