Residents await damage reports on homes
Tanya McKimmie left Langley for Grand Forks in September with her husband and two kids to start a life closer to family.
They bought and moved into her mother-in-law ’s two-storey, threebedroom home in the North Ruckle neighbourhood.
“It was supposed to be our forever home,” McKimmie said.
But everything changed in a matter of minutes overnight on May 11. Rising waters rushed into their street as nearby dikes broke, and McKimmie faced a frantic push to grab anything she could and get out of the house.
“I had to go down the street and help family get out as well. There was screaming as we loaded into the truck while water was rising everywhere. It just didn’t feel real.”
Although the majority of residents in British Columbia’s Boundary region who were forced from their homes by catastrophic floods are free to return home, many are still waiting for their properties to be assessed by emergency crews before deciding what to do next.
The Regional District of Kootenay Boundary says evacuation orders have been lifted and downgraded to evacuation alerts for about 1,400 properties.
Meanwhile, in the Lower Mainland, fears the Fraser River could overflow its banks and start flooding low-lying areas did not materialize.
A map posted by the Fraser Valley Regional District website shows 18 properties around Nicomen Island and nine properties next to Harrison Bay are also facing evacuation orders.
There was screaming as we loaded into the truck while water was rising everywhere. It just didn’t feel real.
The Township of Langley was bracing for flooding if water levels went over six metres. On Monday, the water level at the Mission gauge, which was expected to hit 6.22 metres, stayed below the sixmetre mark.
The weather will be the key factor in how the situation unfolds this week, said the B.C. River Forecast Centre in a statement.
With hot weather expected to continue over the Fraser River watershed, officials say additional rises on the lower Fraser River are a possibility.