Second surge from Nooksack River impacts some B.C. farms, businesses along the border
As a flood from the Nooksack River poured into Sumas Prairie for the second time in two weeks, some farmers remained extremely concerned Monday evening about how severe its impact will be.
While the waters appeared to be skirting the Huntingdon Village neighbourhood, where some 90 homes remain under evacuation order, they were still flowing into the fields to the northeast, including into Cynthia Dykman’s family farm.
“We won’t be sleeping tonight, that’s for sure,” Dykman told CTV News around 5:30 p.m.
She said the family was preparing to evacuate one low-lying barn, home to 300 calves, with the water level rising and their pumps getting clogged.
“You just throw your hands in the air and do the best you can,” she said, adding that they were ready to move the calves to higher ground just as they did two weeks ago.
Earlier, before the waters rose, chicken and blueberry farmer Ed Friesen came out to survey the few dry patches left in his fields.
“We’re good. We’re all alive. And we are surviving,” Friesen said.
“I think we’re as prepared as we can be,” he said, adding they’d moved all the chicks to the second floor, and that living through the first flood had made them a “little bit smarter.”
Meanwhile, Wayne Elias, the manager for a recycling plant along the border that had just re-opened for a couple days, before waters shut it again, watched warily.
He called the Nooksack flood a “slow motion train wreck.”
“You’re standing here, and watching the water come,” Elias said. “And there’s just nothing you can do.”
Others, like Shawn Hystek, who has lived all his life on the prairie, expressed optimism the waters didn’t appear to be as high or intense as first forecast.
“I put a marker at my father-in-law’s creek there to see how quick the water has come up,” he told CTV Monday afternoon.
“It’s not rising too fast, (so I’m) feeling a lot more comfortable this time.”
Still, there is widespread concern, Hystek said, about the third of three atmospheric rivers set to impact the Fraser Valley starting late Tuesday, especially with many homes and farms on the eastern end of Sumas Prairie still entirely inaccessible.
“Let’s see how the rest of the week goes with the rain,” he said.
“It’d be nice to just have life go back to normal now.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Board orders deportation for trucker in horrific Humboldt Broncos crash
The truck driver who caused the horrific bus crash involving the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team has been ordered to be deported.
Community mourns victims of fatal boat crash near Kingston, Ont.
The three people killed in last weekend's tragic collision between a speedboat and a fishing boat north of Kingston are being remembered Friday.
A woman took her dog to a shelter to be euthanized. A year later, the dog is up for adoption again
Exhausted and short on options after consulting two veterinary clinics, Kristie Pereira made the gut-wrenching decision last year to take her desperately ill puppy to a Maryland shelter to be euthanized.
Group tied to Islamic State plotted fatal Ontario restaurant shooting: Crown
A gunman who is accused of killing a young Ontario man and shooting four of his family members at their small Mississauga restaurant in 2021 was allegedly part of a trio who had pledged allegiance to the listed terrorist group Islamic State, a Crown attorney said in an opening statement in the Brampton murder trial this week.
'A really bad car crash': Why health experts are raising concerns over surging syphilis cases
A sexually transmitted infection (STI) that was once thought to be a thing of the past is now a public health priority for North American doctors.
Purolator truck drivers from Guelph, Ont. save man walking in Hwy. 407 lanes
A pair of Purolator transport truck drivers from Guelph, Ont. are being hailed as heroes for their efforts in helping a person in crisis.
Trudeau responds to American senators calling on Canada to increase defence spending
Stopping short of offering the assurance U.S. senators are seeking, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his government is aware there's more work to do in order to see Canada meet NATO's defence spending target.
Toddler dies after being struck by recycling truck in Barrie, Ont. neighbourhood
A toddler has died after being struck by a recycling truck in a Barrie, Ont. neighbourhood on Thursday afternoon.
Milk sold in Canadian grocery stores tested for avian influenza; results released
As avian flu spreads south of the border, Canadian officials are now testing samples of milk sold in grocery stores across the country.