Emergency officials keeping close eye on rising Fraser River

Emergency officials are keeping a close eye on the Fraser River as it continues to rise.

It has already spilled over into some regional parks, campgrounds and trails, forcing them to close for safety.

An emergency operations centre has been activated near Surrey’s Barnston Island ferry as precaution, to monitor the water levels and prepare for any potential flooding.

“We're monitoring the river levels hourly,” said Metro Vancouver Regional District emergency operations director, Brant Arnold-Smith. “Doing dike surveillance, patrols along the river as well as aerial patrols, making sure Metro Vancouver’s critical infrastructure is not impacted and that we can maintain the critical services we provide to the region without any impact due to flooding.”

A high streamflow advisory remains in place for the lower Fraser River. It was issued by the B.C. River Forecast Centre May 15 due to the heatwave forecast speeding up snowmelt, causing the river to rise.

“The rivers are running high,” said Arnold-Smith. “We’re monitoring weather patterns in the Interior. We’ve seen rain fall last week and today, so that could impact the lower Fraser in the next two days.”

The Township of Langley issued a flood advisory for properties in the unprotected flood plain areas of Northwest Langley, Glen Valley and Fort Langley.

“The river generally starts rising near the end of May and continues until mid-July,” according to a news release from the Township of Langley. “The Township strongly encourages property owners in the floodplain to consider the consequences of a flood happening on their own property, and to address any issues ahead of time.”

Emergency officials are already preparing so they are ready if the situation gets worse.

“We have plans in place to deploy sandbags, tiger dams…organizing aerial resources and also looking at…transportation options in the event of an evacuation,” said Arnold-Smith.

At this point there are no flood alerts in place.

While it doesn’t happen every year, it’s also not uncommon for emergency operations centres to open along the Fraser River.

An EOC was activated in both 2020 and 2022. Last June an evacuation alert was issued for Barnston Island due to high river levels, but there were no evacuation orders.