Paul Mulholland returned to his Duncan, B.C., home on Heather Street Friday to rescue anything he could.
A lifetime of memories was either under murky brown water or floating on it.
He was most concerned about generations of family photographs in his coffee table.
"They're all stuck together. They're not going to come out," he told CTV News as he waded in knee-deep water in his living room.
The only way to get the photos was to dump the water and lift the table onto the couch.
Mulholland, who has lived in the home for 37 years, has seen minor flooding before but never anything like this.
"Pretty much everything is gone," he said.
Outside, the street looked more like a river.
Lisa Hales helped her boyfriend load the back of a pickup truck with his TVs and stereo. They also managed to collect family photos.
"Everything's under water, the whole house," she said.
Bob Bell, who's lived in the area for 52 years, was mad that the municipality was unable to prevent the disaster.
"Do their ruddy job. We paid big money for these houses. Fix it," he said.
A few houses away, Brent Hookey was one of the lucky ones. He surrounded his home with sandbags.
If the water had been an eighth of an inch higher, his house would have flooded.
"Mine is dry, but it's just by the blessings of God, it's dry."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jim Beatty
