A coast to coast nightmare

As flood waters begin receding following an “atmospheric river” that washed out roads and submerged whole cities in British Columbia earlier this week, the true extent of the damage is starting to become clear. Yet for many Canadians, in B.C. and elsewhere, the economic pain wrought by this catastrophe is just beginning.

On Wednesday afternoon, the B.C. government officially declared a state of emergency. The only question: why did it take so long?

Two days earlier, it had become clear that the Lower Mainland had been completely cut off from the rest of Canada via overland routes. The historic Canadian Pacific Railway, constructed as part of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald's “National Dream” to link B.C. to Central Canada, had been severed. As was the Canadian National line. Both could be impassible for weeks.

The Trans-Canada Highway had been damaged in several sections and was no longer driveable. The Coquihalla Highway, the largest of the four routes connecting Metro Vancouver with the B.C. interior, had been devastated. On Wednesday, photos emerged of a bridge that had completely collapsed. Deputy premier Mike Farnsworth says it could take “weeks or months” to repair. Other roadways — including highways 3, 7 and 99 — were also closed in both directions.

The Sumas Prairie more closely resembled the lake that was drained to create the area in the 1920s. Over 1,000 Abbotsford properties were placed under evacuation orders on Tuesday and thousands of farm animals have died in what Agriculture Minister Lana Popham described as an ongoing “agricultural disaster” that could see tens of thousands more perish in the coming days.

Even by mid-week, parts of the area were still under 1.5 metres of water and volunteers were working around the clock to shore up the Barrowtown Pump Station, whose impending failure threatened to unleash a second torrent of flood water.

Further east, the town of Princeton experienced extensive flooding after dikes along the Tulameen and Similkameen rivers failed, prompting a series of evacuation orders and alerts that continued throughout the week as the sewer system showed signs of strain and broken water and gas lines left most of the town without heat or potable water.

In the nearby town of Merritt, nearly the entire population — around 7,000 people — were evacuated on Monday. Its mayor has been pleading with those who stayed behind to get out, as the municipality's transportation infrastructure and water treatment facilities have been severely compromised.

Thousands of people who live in the area still have no idea when they will be able to return home, and many more could be placed under evacuation orders if municipal sewage and water systems fail in the coming days.

If there has been any saving grace, it's that loss of life has been minimal so far, though Premier John Horgan said he expects there will be “even more fatalities,” as rescue crews continue to search for stranded and missing residents. Though most of the major infrastructure that had been destroyed remained closed at week's end, much progress has been made in the rescue efforts.

On Wednesday evening, hundreds of people who had been stranded in Hope were able to return to Vancouver, thanks to an emergency passenger train and a limited reopening of Highway 7. Members of the Third Canadian Division Immediate Response Unit have also arrived in the province to co-ordinate a team that could eventually include hundreds of military personnel assisting with rescue and relief efforts.

There have also been many stories of Canadians helping their fellow citizens — volunteering to place sandbags, delivering free pizzas to people stuck in their vehicles, taking in stranded travellers, using watercraft to rescue livestock — which is heartwarming to see, especially in an era in which so much media attention focuses on our divisions, rather than our shared sense of community.

For now, the focus rightly remains on helping those in need and repairing critical infrastructure, but this disaster has huge implications, not just for the people of southwestern B.C., but for governments and the Canadian economy as a whole. Though it's too soon to put a price-tag on the devastation, some analysts have predicted it could be the costliest natural disaster in Canadian history.

Aside from the immense cost of rebuilding homes, transportation networks and other infrastructure — which will place a huge burden on individuals, insurance companies and governments at all levels, which have already seen their balance sheets stretched as a result of the pandemic — the fact that Canada's largest port has been effectively cut off from the rest of the country has huge implications for the national economy.

The port handles around $550 million worth of cargo daily and a third of all of Canada's trade with countries outside North America. It is relied on by Canadian manufacturers, farmers and resource-extraction companies to get their goods to markets, especially in Asia, and by Canadians from coast-tocoast who purchase the consumer goods and foodstuffs that arrive there. The longer it remains severed from the rest of Canada, the more it will exacerbate the shortages and rising prices that have resulted from global supply chain issues.

There will also be many questions the provincial government will need to address in the coming months, including the apparent failure of its disaster alert system and whether the destruction was amplified by aging and substandard infrastructure. In the meantime, the focus of many British Columbians will be on the week ahead: Environment Canada is calling for freezing temperatures and even more rainfall in Metro Vancouver.