Flood alerts and evacuation orders continue

FRASER VALLEY (NEWS1130) – Some 1,200 British Columbians are facing flood-evacuation alerts and another 165 are under evacuation orders as heavy rain and a fast-melting snowpack bloat the Fraser River.

Forty-three homes in Maple Ridge are the latest to get an evacuation alert. Meanwhile, people living on about 20 properties along the river in Abbotsford are still out of their homes.

Peter Vincent has owned his waterfront home in Maple Ridge for 27 years. He says the water that is now covering his walkway is not causing him much concern.

“We’ve had high water before, [but] this is certainly higher than I’ve seen it in a long time. It’s got to come up another three feet to do any real damage here,” believes Vincent. “We’re almost at the end of June now so I think the worst is probably gone.”

Chris Duffy, Director of Emergency Co-ordination for Emergency Management BC, says Canadian Forces are keeping in close contact with emergency crews and remain on high alert to help with sandbagging operations.

“I’m not anticipating that at this time but certainly the CF folks, our partners there, are well engaged and prepared to draw resources if we request them.”

Dave Campbell with the BC River Forecast Centre says the floodwatch in the Fraser Valley will continue into next weekend.  He predicts the Fraser should level off in the next couple of days, but adds rain that fell this weekend in the Interior will take until Friday to arrive on the Fraser, in the Lower Mainland.  

“We expect to see that come next week on the sort of Friday to Sunday period,” says Campbell. “At this point looking at river responses in that we’re seeing in the tributaries we’re expecting that pulse to be higher than what we’ve currently seen.”

Today the river measured 6.36 metres at the mission guage.Campbell expects it will hit 7 metres next weekend.

David Jones with Environment Canada says the low-pressure weather system that’s adding to flooding fears around the province will stick around until the middle of the week.

Jones notes the system has been anchored off Oregon, and dumped 25 millimetres of rain on the South Coast from Friday night until yesterday morning. He adds the system also dumped another 48 millimetres in Castelgar over the same period of time.

Local state of emergency in Sicamous

The Fraser River may have stopped rising in the Lower Mainland, but flooding is still causing problems in the Interior.

The District of Sicamous on Shuswap Lake has declared a local state of emergency and issued a do-not-use water notice for one water system.

Thirty-three people have been evacuated after rain-swollen creeks spilled their banks and damaged homes, bridges and highways. Swollen creeks damaged two bridges and a local highway also appears have been washed away in two or three sections.

Emergency crews plan to use a houseboat to evacuate some people.

Sicamous Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Corinne Cross says her house was evacuated in the Two Mile area on Saturday.

She says water from Sicamous creek overwhelmed a wide area.

“It gave loose, and basically exploded, and cutaway all the banks, into properties, undercutting houses, banks just gave away,” says Cross. “It looked like steam or smoke, but it was actually just hot mud, I guess you’d call it.”

Cross says the water changed directions several times.

“Once trees started coming down, they would change the trajectory of the creek, and wash more out,” she adds..

Do you need flood insurance?

If you’re a homeowner and the Fraser River is starting to creep onto your property, you’re probably out of luck when it comes to insurance.

The general rule is home insurance doesn’t cover flooding. That’s why governments tend to kick in money to help people whose homes are damaged.

But Shaun Sinclair with the Insurance Department at BCIT says there is an exception.

“If the water gets high and your sewer backs up, and if you have back-up on your policy, then that would be covered,” explains Sinclair. “It’s very important to check your policy and the wording and understand what coverage you do have.”

Sinclair adds unlike homeowners, flood insurance is an option for business owners.