Abbotsford mayor hopeful as some flood waters recede, key pump station holds out

A critical pump station that has kept flooding in Abbotsford, B.C., from worsening continues to work at full power, but the community isn’t out of the woods yet, according to the city’s mayor.

Henry Braun said water levels have dropped enough around Huntingdon Village and in an area west of Sumas Way to rescind evacuation orders, but floodwaters from the Nooksack River continue to rise on eastern parts of the Sumas Prairie.

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“They’re dropping in the west but rising in the east,” Braun said at a Wednesday afternoon briefing.

Crucially, the Barrowtown Pump Station continues to operate at full power, in large part due to a massive community effort involving 300 volunteers who worked through the night to protect the facility with sandbags.

“I saw the videos and it’s just unbelievable what was happening there, so thank you to whoever you are,” Braun said.

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A failure of the pump station, which moves nearly 1.9 million litres of water per minute, could have led to “catastrophic” further flooding on the Sumas Prairie, an agricultural area that’s been hardest hit by flooding in the region.

While the pump station remains active, Braun said the city wouldn’t be able to open flood gates until the Fraser River water level drops far enough, something Braun said he hoped to see in the next 24 to 36 hours.

Abbotsford Police Chief Mike Serr said officers had evacuated another 40 people from the Sumas Prairie, and that so far there were no reports of anyone unaccounted for.

But he said another 40 or so people remained, despite an evacuation order that remains for the area.

“Which is concerning. We’re still asking anyone in the Sumas Prairie to leave, to follow the evacuation order,” Serr said.

“I know some people … have seen the water is receding in certain areas, but I can tell you this is still a dynamic situation, we’re still monitoring the water levels very closely, we know that this is not over and things can change very quickly.”

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Serr also urged people to stay off the roads, some of which were now seeing waters recede.

City crews have yet to assess damage, he said, and the roads could still be dangerous.

“Those roads are not safe yet, they’ve not been cleared by engineers, they’re unstable, and we need to be sure we do that before we allow travel,” Serr said.

Abbotsford Fire Chief Darren Lee said firefighters had managed to get control of a massive fire involving some 200 recreational vehicles at a vehicle holding lot, and that an air quality advisory had been lifted.

Braun said once waters had further receded the city could begin to assess the damage and costs and next steps, but that for the time being, the priority remained keeping people safe.

The region is home to some 20,000 head of cattle, and there could be potential issues with contaminated water related to manure.

“To be totally candid with you, we know that there’s going to be dead livestock and dead chickens and some other things — we know that a lot of the cows came out, the heroic efforts of our farmers, it was unbelievable, I wish you could see what I saw,” he said.

“We are still focused singularly on people and keeping them safe, but the recovery is just around the corner.”