Flooding causes livestock carnage, minister outlines losses
The worst appears to over as far as the latest storms in British Columbia, but the damage to property, agriculture and livestock has been monumental.
“We are now on the other end of this series of intense storms and the latest events were, thankfully, not as severe as forecast,” public safety minister Mike Farnworth told Thursday’s provincial flood update.
The minister said flood evacuations and road closures remain in place, but the worst weather now appears to be behind us.
“And I think we are all grateful for that,” he stated.
Agriculture minister Lana Popham reported that about 1,800 farms remain under evacuation orders, and the drier weather the next few days will be critical to remove animal carcasses.
“We know at this point there are 628,000 poultry reported dead, 428 dairy cattle deceased and approximately 12,000 hogs. Also of note, 110 bee hives have been submerged,” said Popham.
Popham said the work by farmers, volunteers and companies to remove those animal remains is “extremely heartbreaking.”
The minister said they are still in the process of evaluating the losses, both in animals or plants.
“For blueberry producers, the waters reached depths of over eight feet and some are still under quite heavy amounts of water. There is about 700 acres of blueberries in the Sumas Prairie and we’re not able to know the full damage of those plants as yet.”
One grower, who has 42 acres of blueberries, told Popham, by next April the berries will break dormancy and they will know if they survived or not.
“He feels quite hopeful because he said that a lot of his plants are under water, on and off every winter, and he feels they are quite strong,” Popham remarked.
Popham said people can support B.C. blueberry, and other growers, by buying frozen berries from their grocery store, with an estimated seven million pounds of frozen blueberries in B.C.’s system.
Transportation minister Rob Fleming announced the reopening of Highway 1 through the Fraser Valley after a tiger dam that was a temporary addition to the diking system, was taken down.
“Traffic will start flowing from Vancouver right through to Hope very shortly. I know this is very welcome news for many people in the region,” said Fleming.
OPEN – #BCHwy1 is now open from #Abbotsford to #Chilliwack. All lanes are open. The ramps for No. 3 Road and Cole Road remain closed.
— DriveBC (@DriveBC) December 2, 2021
Another section of Highway 1, further east between Popkum and Hope, has reopened but with restricted flow for about three kilometres near Bridal Falls.
Highway 3 between Princeton and Hope, which is the only highway for large commercial vehicles between the Interior and Coast, remains closed east of Princeton due to flooding.
“However the reports on the ground are that water levels continue to recede and we hope to get that open to at least single lane alternating traffic by later this afternoon,” Fleming reported.
Highway 99 is closed again between Pemberton and Lillooet after a large landslide near Duffy Lake Wednesday night when the route was closed.
“There is a large amount of debris that has to be removed before we can check on the condition of the road so we expect the highway to remain closed until tomorrow (Friday),” said Fleming.