VANCOUVER – Fraser River water is on the move and so are residents on its banks.
Kwantlen First Nation Chief Marilyn Gabriel stood outside the band office on McMillan Island north of Fort Langley Thursday overseeing an impromptu evacuation.
“This is the highest I’ve ever seen it,” she said, staring at a pond where an office parking lot used to be.
Around her, residents were packing boxes into minivans and office furniture into pickup trucks to save them from flooding.
Next door, a building used for children’s programs looked ready for a yard sale, with strollers, hula hoops and hockey sticks strewn on the lawn, ready to be carted off.
Their efforts were urgent: seeping water is converging on the site from east and west; the Fraser is steadily flooding from the south.
If the flow keeps up, band councillor Tumia Knott said that by Friday, “there’s no question we’re going to have water in our building.”
The Island residents were put on evacuation notice Wednesday.
Barnston Island, Maple Ridge, Port Coquitlam
As the band prepared, three more regions – Barnston Island, Maple Ridge and Port Coquitlam – have stepped up flood preparations, joining efforts already under way in Langley, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack.
On Thursday morning, Maple Ridge district staff went door to door providing information to residents deemed most at risk: 50 homeowners along Wharf Street, 40 near the golf course by Best Street and 90 properties fronting Kanaka Creek, plus some fronting the Fraser.
Maple Ridge Mayor Ernie Daykin stressed the need for caution and preparation.
“While the predicted Fraser River levels did not materialize in 2007, it is important that people take the appropriate steps to protect their families, pets, businesses and personal possessions. I’d rather apologize that someone was ‘too prepared’ than ‘unprepared’ for the pulse of water we are expecting.”
Port Coquitlam officials went doorknocking to alert 17 homeowners outside the dikes of the risks Wednesday evening, the city announced Thursday.
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Thursday, the River Forecast Centre maintained flood warnings for the upper and lower Fraser River. The Shuswap River near Enderby, Shuswap Lake, South Thompson River and Quesnel River are also on flood watch.
Barnston Island was put on evacuation alert Thursday by Metro Vancouver officials. There are about 140 residents on the mostly rural island, including members of the Katzie First Nation.
Island resident Elizabeth Milligan has water seeping up her two-acre property. But having lived on the Island since 1953 – through the severe 1972 flood – she’s not fretting about this freshet quite yet.
“I’m not afraid. We’ve been living on the island for 58 years. We’ve had seepage water come up in the back yard and that’s about all,” Milligan said. “Even in 1972, the water was only up to about a foot below the dike. This is nothing serious.”
Others were taking a more proactive approach. Greg Massender, who has lived on the Island for 10 years was packing family heirlooms Thursday to prevent any water damage.
“We’re just sort of waiting to see what the water does,” he said. “You can never bet on what Mother Nature might do.”
Business owners on the island are also bracing for big water.
Peter Hoffmann of Barnston Island Herbs is concerned he may face losses.
“The access road to ferry is low, if it flooded we couldn’t even get to the ferry, and most of our customers are in Vancouver,” said Hoffman, who has owned the 10-acre property since the 1980s. “My greenhouse products are the hardest ones to deal with … Insurance might cover some but not all.”
“I think everyone is a little bit nervous,” he said, noting higher than normal seepage on his land.
The park on the Barnston Island was closed to visitors Thursday, and island access restricted.
Metro Vancouver spokesman Glenn Bohn said the district had set up a temporary command centre in a trailer and held a town-hall meeting Wednesday evening to brief residents and urge them to pack their bags and arrange accommodations now in the event an evacuation order is issued.
Several other communities have been put on evacuation standby.
North Langley
About 147 residents in North Langley, Glen Valley and Brae and McMillan islands were served notice Wednesday. A few homeowners in Abbotsford along Walters Road have also been notified.
Earlier this week 42 homeowners in Chilliwack outside the dike, primarily along Young and Ballam Roads, were alerted to possible evacuations.
Water there is seeping into fields and lapping at roads.
In some places, the river has started gushing over the banks Ballam Road resident Will Davis, president of the Carey Point Improvement Society, said Thursday.
“This morning we started seeing a bit of overland flow,” Davis said. “The river is high enough that its come up over the river bank and on to our property.”
He said at least 15 per cent of his 45-acre beef cattle operation, the Fraser Bar D Angus Farm, is now under water. But he doesn’t expect it to reach his home, which has withstood even the floods of 1972 and 1948. His family has owned the property since 1891.
“We’ve been here before the dike went in,” Davis said. ” A lot of people are quick to judge. But it wasn’t our choice to be on the inside or the outside, it’s just where we ended up.”
Heavy rainfall and a large snowpack are to blame for this year’s flood-prone freshet.
Daily dike patrols are in now in effect in almost all the affected municipalities.
Several other Metro Vancouver regional parks have also closed due to flooding.
Matsqui Trail Regional Park in Abbotsford is now closed. Campgrounds in Langley’s Derby Reach and trails in Brae Island Regional Park were shut earlier this week.
Even so, Surrey resident Lisa Lavigne braved Brae Island Park to sit by the swollen river with her lunch, her dog Sadie by her side.
She usually picnics on the beach. but she’d had to make do with a gravel path Thursday – there was simply no beach left to speak of.
“I’ve been coming here for 20 years at least and I’ve never seen it like this,” she said.
“I’m so thankful I don’t have a house here.”
Chilliwack
The City of Chilliwack has issued an evacuation order for three homes in the Carey Point area of Chilliwack. 12 people are affected.
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