After nearly a week of snow and cold, rising temperatures are bringing concerns about flooding to B.C.'s Fraser Valley.
Abbotsford city workers spent much of Friday morning putting up sandbags to protect church and school buildings in Clayburn Village from melting snow. The low-lying area near the Matsqui Prairie has seen its share of flooding, and crews are keeping extra sandbags onsite in case things get ugly.
"We're monitoring the melt right now and the weather patterns to see what's going to happen, but we are taking precautions in our low-lying areas to ensure that we're ready in the event of flooding," Deputy Fire Chief Ron Hull told CTV News.
"We're keeping our fingers crossed."
Road crews have also been clearing major roadways so that the melting snow can drain safely instead of creating massive puddles.
"Best-case scenario is that we don't get a lot of precipitation and that the temperatures warm up slowly," Hull said.
The city is asking residents to clear snow from their gutters and storm sewers to give melting snow somewhere to go, but restoration companies are still bracing for a busy weekend.
Brian Bessey of ServiceMaster Restore says the winter season has already been busy because of problems with frozen pipes, and now the company has ordered extra equipment to keep up with the anticipated demand.
"Most of our staff's already scheduled to work tomorrow and everybody else is on call ready to respond, so nobody has the weekend off," Bessey said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Penny Daflos
