'I'm not going to abandon them': Neighbours lift each other up with more rain on the way
Abbotsford’s Dan Dennill has made a living helping people clean up devastating damage.
So when he started to get calls about the floodwaters receding on parts of the Sumas Prairie, and homeowners needing help, he decided to step up.
“I was always told if a neighbour is in need, then you go and help,” Dennill, the CEO of Surreal Cleaning Solutions said. “So that’s what we’re trying to do in our own community.”
He takes us to see home after home after home.
The stories are similar: heartbreaking and at the same time, hopeful.
Near a squiggle in the Sumas, we meet Paulette Johnson.
She’s sitting at the bottom of her staircase, sorting through a box of what looks like children’s clothing, a smile on her face.
“Attitude means a lot and I am thankful for what I do have,” she tells me.
All around her, there’s utter destruction left by the flood.
Everything below a metre or so has been wiped out.
“Where do you start? You just put one foot in front of the other,” Johnson says. “Tell yourself you’re tough.”
Dennill found her by word-of-mouth, he tells me.
First, it’s demolition and getting the water out, then rinsing mud and silt, sanitizing, and getting heat and fans in.
If the homeowners don’t have savings, Dennill’s crew somehow still gets paid.
“I don’t say no. people don’t have money. It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to abandon them,” he says.
Neither is Wes Gmur, 80 years young and volunteering with Dennill’s team.
He steers us to his childhood farm, now owned by the Meier family.
“Got a lot of good friends out here,” Gmur says, “and they’re in trouble.”
Water didn’t make it to the first floor, we learn, though Chelsea Meier’s basement, which was full to the rafters, she shows us, has just gone from disaster to dry.
Her grandmother’s china and just-canned peaches somehow survived standing up.
Her six-by-twelve-foot snooker table is stuck on its side.
Out front neighbours come by with a car full of homemade snacks.
I ask her what else the family needs.
“Just support,” she says. “Hands, coveralls, boots, that’s the only thing I can think of.”
More storms are on the way.
Sandbags are available somewhere.
But on our drive we don’t see any being set out quite yet.
“You don’t even know what to do with sandbags,” Meier tells me bluntly. “You can’t even tell where. (the water will come from). I don’t know.”
Back at the Johnsons', Paulette tells me she really hasn’t thought much the forecast.
There’s too much to do.
“I can’t change the future. I can only do what I can do today,” she says.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Trudeau acknowledges charges in Nijjar killing, calls for commitment to democracy
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has acknowledged the charges laid Friday in relation to the murder of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Bodies recovered in Mexico likely 2 Australians, 1 American who went missing: officials
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Princess Anne lays wreath at B.C. veteran's cemetery; receives 21-gun salute
Princess Anne paid tribute to veterans buried at a cemetery in British Columbia today, laying a wreath to honour the more than 2,500 military personnel and family members buried there.
Mystik Dan wins the 150th Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in a three-horse photo finish
Mystik Dan won the 150th Kentucky Derby in a photo finish, edging out Forever Young and Sierra Leone for the upset victory.
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
London Drugs begins 'gradual reopening' on 7th day after cyberattack
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.