A dairy farmer in Abbotsford, B.C., says the community has been coming together to help each other after an atmospheric river hit the region on Wednesday and Thursday.
“We’ve been bracing for this flooding for a couple of days now,” dairy farmer Matt Dykshoorn told Global News. “We’ve been making preparations.”
He said they have moved the younger cows from the lower barn, which was a good move because it is currently under five feet of water.
However, they kept the milking herd on the farm, but luckily the water did not reach the barn floor.
Then, about 2 p.m. on Thursday, the dike behind his farm burst and released about six feet of water in only a few hours.
“It came up higher than we thought it would,” Dykshoorn said, saying he hopes the worst is over.
“At this point, it looks like this is as bad as it’s gonna get and we’ve pulled through,” he said.
“There’s the water has to go down before we can start the cleanup, so that’s gonna be a couple of days. But yeah, there’s there’s a lot of work ahead of us. Like our fields are littered in garbage again. We’ll probably end up having to reseed the whole farm.
“Like this will probably kill all the crops, all the winter cover crops. So I mean, that’s … deflating as much as anything.”
Dykshoorn’s farm was affected by the atmospheric river and catastrophic flooding four years ago and says it is frustrating to be experiencing it again, even to a lesser extent.
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“We’ve been saying that since the 1990 flood that this is a lifeblood of Canada’s transportation system flowing through the Fraser Valley,” he added.
“To leave it as unprotected and as and as vulnerable as it is, is just bizarre. The farmland here, the hugely, hugely productive farmland, the people, the animals in here, like to just be completely abandoned by the government; it’s frustrating. And we struggle to even get an audience with them, let alone action.
“So we’ll keep trying, but we’re starting to run out of ideas.”
At a press conference on Friday, Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens blasted the federal government for its lack of response.
“To say that we are disappointed and frustrated is an understatement,” he said.
“And once again, the safety and the well-being of our residents, our farms, our livestock, provincial food security, provincial economy, and even our national economy remain unprotected and at risk.”
Siemens said he appreciates the provincial government responding to the flooding, but says they need more than “empty promises” from the federal government.
He said the federal government has not reached out to him during this flooding event.
“Within the first six months following the devastating flood of 2021, we developed a long-term flood mitigation plan to avoid this exact issue,” Siemens added.
“We have done everything, including almost standing on our heads to be noticed and to be heard, and again to be disappointed by our federal government — to me, this is an issue that needs to be addressed.
“It’s a foundational issue to our economy, to our food security, and to put my city residents at risk once again, needlessly because of inaction, is frustrating.”
Siemens said it needs the federal government to adopt the long-term flood mitigation plan soon to maintain a strong partnership.
When asked by Global News what she thought of Siemens’ comments, Eleanor Olszewski, the Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience, said she has been in close contact with her provincial counterpart, Minister Kelly Greene.
Olszewski said she had a call with Siemens on Friday afternoon regarding the floods and the future.
“Last year marked the completion of the modernization for the disaster financial assistance arrangement (DFAA) program, which is the mechanism by which the federal government shares the cost of significant disasters with the provinces,” Mathis Denis, Olszewski’s director of communications, said in a statement.
“The changes included the addition of a specific stream that will focus on long-term mitigation so communities can be more resilient and build back better following natural disasters. Minister Olszewski and our new government is committed to strengthening federal leadership in emergency management.”
Dykshoorn said the community in the Sumas Prairie has come together to help each other and while he is grateful for the help, he said he wishes he didn’t need it as much as he does.
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