'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
Ottawa public school board, 3 Toronto-area school boards launch lawsuit against social media giants
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and three school boards in the Toronto-area have launched legal action against social media giants, accusing them of "disrupting students' fundamental right to education."
Several flight attendants from Pakistan have gone missing after landing in Canada
Multiple flight attendants from Pakistan International Airlines have abandoned their jobs and are believed to have sought asylum in Canada in the past year and a half, a spokesperson for the government-owned airline says.
Statistics Canada reports real GDP up 0.6% in January as Quebec strikes end
Statistics Canada says real gross domestic product grew 0.6 per cent in January, helped by the end of public sector strikes in Quebec in November and December.
Tipping is off the table at this Toronto restaurant
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 mm among weather alerts in effect for 7 provinces
Rainfall warnings of up to 90 millimetres, air quality advisories and other alerts have been issued for seven Canadian provinces, according to the latest forecasts.
King Charles calls for acts of friendship in first public remarks since Kate's cancer diagnosis
King Charles III gave public remarks for Maundy Thursday, addressing the importance of acts of friendship, following his and Catherine, Princess of Wales’ cancer diagnoses.
Ukrainian child asylum seekers in St. John’s get class of their own
Roughly 50 children will gathered in a St. John’s classroom for the first time on Saturday for unique lessons on Ukrainian language, culture and history.
A Nigerian woman reviewed some tomato puree online. Now she faces jail
A Nigerian woman who wrote an online review of a can of tomato puree is facing imprisonment after its manufacturer accused her of making a “malicious allegation” that damaged its business.
Donald Trump assails judge and his daughter after gag order in N.Y. hush-money criminal case
Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order that bars him from commenting publicly about witnesses, prosecutors, court staff and jurors in his upcoming hush-money criminal trial.