'2 years of recovery ahead': Abbotsford, B.C., mayor calls for infrastructure repairs

The City of Abbotsford, B.C., has lifted the evacuation order for the remaining portion of Sumas Prairie, with the exception of a few homes, Mayor Henry Braun said Friday.

The city is communicating directly with the affected homeowners who are still under evacuation orders, Braun said.

The final portion of the prairie to see residents return home is known in the city's plan as the Lake Bottom, because it's the centre of the former Sumas Lake, which was drained in the early 20th century to create the prairie.

Other portions of the prairie had already seen evacuation orders lifted over the last two weeks.

The mayor said earlier in the week that Friday would be his last scheduled briefing on the flooding situation.

Braun said the city is "not out of the woods yet," and expressed concern about a storm that's set to bring strong winds and more rain to the city through Saturday morning.

At the same time, however, he said he believes the worst of the flooding disaster is behind the city.

"I'm relieved this part's over," Braun said. "The hard part, though, is coming: the next two years. We've got two years of recovery in front of us."

Braun dedicated a significant portion of his remarks to warning that more support and funding is needed from the provincial government to reinforce infrastructure in the city.

He highlighted the need to upgrade the Sumas River dike and the Barrowtown Pump Station "as soon as possible," as well as the need for improvements to another dike in the city.

"I'm more afraid of the Fraser (River) dike - the Matsqui dike breaking on the Fraser," he said. "The last flood we had there was in 1948 and it was a mess."

Since then, Braun said, the Fraser River has continued to erode and change, bringing thousands of tonnes of silt deposits from farther east each year.

"The river level keeps rising," he said. "Our dikes aren't being raised. This isn't rocket science. Eventually, if there's a confluence of what we had here - record rainfall, heavy snowmelt, warm temperatures - that dike's going to break."

Braun called on the provincial and federal governments to put aside partisanship and work to complete the necessary infrastructure repairs in Abbotsford.

"The City of Abbotsford - as a local government that receives only approximately 10 cents of every tax dollar - simply cannot fund $1 billion to rebuild both dikes to today's standards," Braun said, noting that $1 billion is more than six times the city's current annual property tax requisition.

He also mentioned the need for international cooperation with U.S. officials in Washington State to ensure that dikes and other infrastructure holding back the Nooksack River in that country are also reinforced.

The mayor also thanked city staff for their role in responding to the crisis, becoming emotional as he noticed some of them unexpectedly in the room with him.

"I think our staff and the contractors and everybody else that came from other jurisdictions, what they have accomplished in 27 days is, I think, miraculous," Braun said.