Evacuations, mudslides and water issues affecting Mission, B.C.

Mission, B.C. -

The City of Mission is dealing with mudslides, water issues and an evacuation order due to B.C.’s flooding emergency.

A local state of emergency was declared on Tuesday for the Benbow Street subdivision in Hatzic. It’s the second time in as many weeks for the area.

Mayor Paul Horn said the order was initially for eight properties, but by Wednesday that had risen to 12.

Just over the bridge, the Everglades Resort is also under evacuation order. 

Hatzic Island is under the jurisdiction of the Fraser Valley Regional District, but Mayor Horn said Search and Rescue crews and Fire Rescue crews from Mission had been deployed there to help.

Rick Gaunt is a caretaker at the Everglades Resort and said the area had only just started to recover from the last flood.

“I just finished fixing my floor from the one we had two weeks ago, which was about a foot deeper than this one, and I just finished fixing the floor on Saturday and Monday we’re flooding again, so it’s sad,” Gaunt said.

Gaunt and other residents told CTV News they were concerned about the culverts that run under nearby Highway 7, saying not enough water was pumping into the Fraser River.

Horn believed that issue would “be a major part of what’s discussed” with the Fraser Valley Regional District in the future.

As for where the flooding is coming from, Horn said there wasn’t much of a concern with the Fraser River, as levels had been steadily coming down. He was worried about water coming from higher elevations.

“We do realise there’s a lot of water up in the hills and mountains that’s continuing to come down,” he said. “We actually had more intense rain in those areas than we had here.”

In addition to the flooding, Mission is also monitoring road issues. A number of streets were either closed or reduced to a single lane of traffic through Wednesday due to mudslides and overland flooding.

A boil water advisory was also in place for Mission’s west, in the Ruskin area. Horn said about 13 properties were affected by a “turbitity” issue.