'Just horrible': Abbotsford, B.C., woman shares story of flood damage to family farm
Tiffany de Leeuw says her in-laws realized the gravity of the disaster facing their farm on the Sumas Prairie when a field flooded in 30 minutes.
She said her father-in-law and brother-in-law quickly set out with cattle trailers on the first day of the flooding to save animals boarding on the property while other relatives worked to build dikes to protect their third-generation farm.
But de Leeuw said her father-in-law admitted defeat in trying to save the farm via a text message a short while later.
“We turned the hydro off. We lost,” she said he wrote in the text.
The property is primarily used for feed storage, growing crops and raising livestock, with others renting parts of it to run their own businesses.
“It was devastating watching my family lose their homes and livelihoods and basically just stand there in shock like 'What just hit us?”' de Leeuw said on Tuesday. “Last week was just horrible.”
She is also facing her own sense of loss. Her hair salon on the property is submerged in nearly two metres of water.
“For me alone, seeing my salon that I've poured all my time and effort into over the past five years destroyed is heartbreaking,” she said in an interview. “It's my safe place, it's my creative outlet, it's where I go to catch a break from life and lose myself in the art I love.”
The farm is one of hundreds damaged or destroyed by flooding last week in the low-lying Sumas Prairie region of Abbotsford. The area is home to much of B.C.'s agricultural production.
It was one of the hardest hit parts of the province by storms that dumped an unprecedented amount of rain, triggering evacuations and mudslides that cut off highways.
B.C. Agriculture Minister Lana Popham flew over the area on Tuesday, seeing the damage for the first time.
“I was shocked. I know the area quite well so I can see some of the farms that just have roofs exposed. I know those farms, I've been in those farms, I've been in those barns. It's shocking and it's so devastating,” she said.
There's no timeline on when all farmers will be able to return or when full production can restart, she said.
Popham said blueberry farmers told her their entire crops were destroyed and they will have to wait for contaminated soil to be cleaned before they can replant.
De Leeuw said her family expects to be able to fully access their property in the next few weeks, as long as water levels continue to drop.
“We don't know if we can partially rebuild or bulldoze the buildings and start from scratch,” she said.
But more rain is expected for the region over the coming days.
Environment Canada has posted special weather statements for much of B.C.'s inner south coast, including the flood-damaged Fraser Valley. It says a new storm is expected to hit the region Wednesday night, dropping 40 to 80 millimetres of rain, before easing Friday.
It says the storm “will be shorter-lived and less intense” than the one that hit the province from Nov. 13-15. “However, it will still bring moderate to heavy rain and strong winds.”
A second so-called atmospheric river is also forecast to drench the south coast Saturday, the weather office said, with total accumulations from both storms likely to exceed 100 millimetres.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 24, 2021.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
Concerns about plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall plexiglass barriers.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Toddler of Phoenix first responder dies after bounce house goes airborne
A two-year-old child died after a strong gust of wind sent the bounce house he was in airborne and into a neighbouring lot in central Arizona, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office said.
Canada's most wanted fugitive arrested in P.E.I. in connection with Toronto homicide
A suspect in a fatal shooting in Toronto’s east end last summer has been arrested in Charlottetown, just one week after he topped a list of Canada’s most wanted fugitives.
Plane overshoots runway at airport in St. John's, N.L., no injuries reported
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are headed to St. John's, N.L., after a plane overshot a runway at the city's airport this afternoon.