Abbotsford on flood prep as storms bring back memories of 2021

As the Lower Mainland is hit by a series of storms as part of an atmospheric river, Abbotsford says it’s pulling out all the stops to prepare for potential flooding.

Flood watches and warnings issued for the Sumas River in recent days have brought back chilling reminders for many residents haunted by the devastating atmospheric river of 2021.

Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens says the Barrowtown Pump Station is being manned 24/7, the floodgates are open with all four pumps working, and the city is inspecting culverts and ditches for localized flooding.

“We’re in a really good situation at this point. Everybody is on deck,” he told CityNews Monday.

“Thankfully, we don’t have any water coming over from Washington state. So we’re in good shape.”

‘Horrible reminders of what happened’

The devastating floods in November 2021 destroyed homes, submerged fields and crops, and left many farmers with nothing.

Siemens says while localized flooding is nothing new this time of year with this kind of weather, tensions remain high for many in the community.

“It is like post-traumatic stress. My in-laws’ dairy farm is out on the Sumas Prairie where the dyke breach was and so we’re well aware of the challenges and the nerves. We’re very concerned and I totally understand their anxiety and their frustration. It does bring back some horrible reminders of what happened,” the Abbotsford mayor said.

“We put our disaster-mitigation, our adaptation fund in to the province and the federal government. We’re anticipating an announcement hopefully sooner as opposed to later. But until we have that Sumas River pump station and Barrowtown resiliency in place, I don’t think any of us are going to rest easy when we get these atmospheric rivers, especially one right after the other.”

Siemens notes the situation now is a far cry from what the region saw just over two years ago. He says there’s not as much snowmelt as there was in 2021, and there have been breaks in the recent series of weather systems. The Nooksack River is also not at the level it was then.

During the devastating atmospheric river two years ago, heavy rain not only pushed water levels up in the Sumas River — the Nooksack also overflowed its banks south of the border, sending water across the line.

The City of Bellingham said at the time that the flood was unlike anything many in the region had seen before.

“This is the type of flood event that we see over many decades, highly unusual, something that our crews who have been here for 30 years have never seen before. We’re seeing water where we’ve never seen it before, we’re seeing to a level we have not seen before, we have creeks flowing at levels we have not seen before, and lake levels that are higher than they have been in our records. So this is a historic event,” explained Eric Johnston, the public works director with the City of Bellingham, said on Nov. 16, 2021.

Related video: Bellingham floods wash out roads in 2021

Meanwhile, Siemens says he understands insurance remains a challenge for some businesses and farms in his community. He notes since the flood situation, “insurance is going to be a bit of a challenge.”

He says the city continues to advocate “tirelessly” for infrastructure funding to mitigate another disaster, and for governments to recognize how critical the region is to the rest of the province and country.

“The other thing that I think is vitally important to mention is that this isn’t an Abbotsford issue — this is a provincial and federal government issue. You take a look at the food security, you take a look at the transportation corridor, this has provincial and national — even international trade is affected by what happens on that prairie. So the amount of investment that our farmers have put in for provincial food security is very, very significant,” Siemens said.

“This is about feeding the province. This is about getting goods and services out of the busiest port in the country through to market. So it’s quite a significant issue that I think gets lost in the shuffle sometimes.”

Speaking to reporters from Ottawa Monday, Premier David Eby confirmed the province was having conversations with the federal government about critical infrastructure.

“This includes issues like Highway 1. We’re expanding Highway 1 but we’re also doing repair work … following the atmospheric river event, as well as other critical infrastructure for Abbotsford and for other communities across British Columbia,” he said.

“Making sure that our national trade corridor of Highway 1 works and stays in operation even in extreme weather events is a critically important, shared priority of the federal government and the provincial government. And we want to see the federal government to show up at the table with the money to make real their commitments around this area.”

To those who were forced to rebuild from the devastation in 2021 and who have raised fears this time around, Siemens is stressing the city is “in better shape than we were.”

He notes dykes are higher in key areas, including where the dyke breached in 2021, and culverts are bigger and have been cleaned.

However, he admits until the Barrowtown resiliency and the Sumas pump station are in place, “I’m not going to rest easy.”

Last year, the province announced upgrades to the Barrowtown Pump Station, with that and other projects receiving a combined $8.48 million for repairs and upgrades.