Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
In portions of Halifax and central Nova Scotia, as an estimated 250 millimetres of rain fell last weekend, similar confusion and improvisation was unfolding, in what some experts say is the latest example of the province's inadequate state of preparation for climate disasters. The mayor of the Municipality of West Hants has said many residents reported they didn't receive any emergency alert at all because of the area's spotty cellular service.
Flood watches remain in place for the McLeod River and Athabasca River at Whitecourt. Water levels on the two rivers are expected to peak Tuesday evening, putting low-lying areas of Whitecourt at risk. Jasper National Park has also been hit hard by recent rain and snow, resulting in road and trail closures and treacherous conditions. In a statement Monday officials said 100 mm of rain and 55 centimetres of snow had fallen in some locations and Maligne and Miette roads have been closed.
With government agencies dealing with the urgent public safety needs of the day, the health of fish habitat ranked low on the list of priorities. But as floodwaters rose, the distinction between terrestrial and aquatic habitats blurred, salmon and sturgeon swam across farmers’ fields, and contaminants from human activities washed unfettered into streams and rivers.
When a dike was breached and floodwaters started to flow across British Columbia’s Sumas Prairie a year ago, poultry farmer Corry Spitters said all he could do was let nature take its course. A feeling of helplessness gripped him as the encroaching water methodically engulfed his farm’s 21 barns, and 200,000 of his chickens drowned, he said. “You stand there and Mother Nature takes control,” said Spitters, 67. “What can you do? The water comes in and there’s nothing you can do.”
Devastating flooding last spring has many in the farming community around Hay River, N.W.T., contemplating their future. Andrew Cassidy and Helen Green, owners of Greenwood Gardens, are still deciding on their next move as they grapple with what's left of their home and business after floodwaters tore through the Paradise Gardens valley in May. "The flooding was really damaging, like it washed away soil, it washed away our raised beds," Cassidy said.
Lawyers for the British Columbia government have agreed to pay $300,000 to settle a lawsuit by a couple whose property flooded after a third of the forest in the surrounding watershed was cut down. The agreement came in a handwritten note that was signed by the Crown's lawyers and handed over in court on the day the trial was set to begin last month. Ray Chipeniuk and Sonia Sawchuk had launched the lawsuit in 2014, claiming that B.C. Timber Sales, the provincial Crown agency responsible for auctioning about 20 per cent of B.C.'s annual allowable cut, was negligent in its failure to take reasonable care to ensure their property in northwestern B.C. would not be damaged by the logging.
All levels of government need to come together to help solve flood-related infrastructure issues on Manitoba's largest First Nation, community leaders said. "There is serious work to do," William Sutherland, Peguis First Nation's director of emergency management, said in an interview Sunday as the flood-battered community north of Winnipeg was toiling to again try and shore up structures, roads and homes as water levels rise from recent rainfall.
Homes in Carmacks, Yukon, that use the village's wastewater treatment plant are now under an evacuation alert as water levels on the Yukon River continue to rise. The plant is at risk of being overwhelmed, and the village doesn't know how much longer it can last, Mayor Lee Bodie said on Sunday. "There may be an evacuation order coming any day," Bodie said.
The water level of Sand Point Lake along the Minnesota-Ontario border continues to rise. Docks are submerged, propane tanks are floating in the water, and floodwaters are lapping against the sides of buildings. Yet dozens of cabin and resort owners on the Canadian side of the lake can’t access their properties, because a Canadian customs office on the lake remains closed.
A remote First Nation in northwestern Ontario is still working to recover from "unprecedented water levels" coming from the Pikangikum Lake, according to an emergency management official with the community. Major infrastructure and the main source of drinking water in Pikangikum were threatened by the rising water earlier this week, and the sole road to the northern store — the only place community members can purchase food and gas — was covered with water. The remote First Nation has about 3,000 residents and is located 500 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont.
As people on Vale Island fled their homes and drove south to escape floodwaters from the Hay River, they left more behind than just their houses. Some left their pets, thinking they could return to collect them. Those plans vanished when water closed off the highway. At a community town hall meeting on Tuesday, Hay River, N.W.T., Mayor Kandis Jameson said the town is aware pets are stranded on the island and they are trying to find a way to rescue them.
Five times over the past 16 years, the Fisher River has spilled its banks at Peguis First Nation. The river channel is so small and the terrain in Manitoba's northern Interlake is so flat, it doesn't take much for floodwaters to spread far and wide across the Anishinaabe and Cree community. Every time there's a flood, the provincial and federal governments respond with some form of help. Depending on the severity of the flood in question, that assistance has included sandbags, pumps, billeting in hotels and even the replacement of dozens of flood-damaged homes.
About 200 more people left Peguis First Nation on Wednesday and dozens of workers poured into the community as floodwaters continued to threaten it and other areas of Manitoba. The Fisher River had come up a little overnight before appearing to stabilize, but the rise left more homes surrounded by water or with water inside, Chief Glenn Hudson said.
When Donna Rae moved to Merritt, B.C., from Vancouver, she bought a small retirement home where she figured she'd spend the rest of her life. But late last year, that home became filled with mud, water and debris from the Coldwater River — one of many destroyed during devastating floods in November. Now Rae, 70, says she wishes she'd never moved to the city in B.C.'s southern Interior. "Now I'm wishing I'd stayed at the coast, so I don't have to deal with this," she said.
Four Abbotsford-area neighbours are being recognized for their early work helping to save the Barrowtown pump station after it was nearly swamped by floodwaters during November's deadly and destructive storms. Chris Kitt, Doug Kasper and brothers Cam and Patrick Raines told CBC News they had been monitoring the water levels for about a day close to properties in Barrowtown on the Sumas Prairie near Abbotsford B.C., where many of them live, when it suddenly became apparent the nearby Sumas River was about to breach its banks.
Hundreds more flood evacuees are being allowed to return home to the Sumas Prairie area of Abbotsford, B.C., as the city continues cleaning up from last month's catastrophic flooding. Mayor Henry Braun announced Wednesday that rapid damage assessments have been completed for houses, barns and garages in the southern Sumas Prairie, allowing officials to lift an evacuation order for 400 properties.
At the height of the floods that ripped through B.C. in late November, Ripples Estate Winery in Abbotsford was under seven feet of water. A greenhouse full of tropical plants, expensive electronic distilling equipment, and most of their stock of wine, vodka, gin and rum were underwater. Blueberry fields were also drenched for nearly two weeks, including heavy machinery like harvesters, bobcats and tractors.
We start in British Columbia, where more heavy rainfall is expected this week and flooding shows no signs of abating. Floodwaters in the hard-hit community of Abbotsford are rising again as the Nooksack River south of the border overflows. Farmers in the region continue to assess the damage to their operations. As the Canadian Press reports, blueberry farmer David Gill says the devastating floods have set famers back by “at least a decade” and it will take them years to recover. Thousands of livestock were killed in the floods and fields across the Fraser Valley are still flooded with contaminated water. As CBC News reports, experts say it will be weeks before farmers know how the contaminated waters have affected the region’s fertile farmland.
Six days into the flood, Harman Kaur and her husband took a drive past their acreage and found thousands of their ruby-red blueberry bushes were still completely buried in the murky, brown floodwater. Leaking pesticides swirled around the field. Garbage and gas tanks floated past. The smell of fuel filled their noses. "There was a complete layer of oil on top [of the water], and we're talking what I could just see from the road," said Kaur, 29, whose family has owned their farm in the Arnold area of Abbotsford, B.C., for more than a decade.
