An atmospheric river soaking B.C.\u2019s south coast Wednesday has forced evacuation alerts and orders for multiple Fraser Valley properties.<\/p>\n
Shortly before 4 p.m. on Wednesday, the City of Abbotsford issued evacuation alerts for properties in Sumas Prairie West and Clayburn Village.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most potentially impacted properties will receive hand-delivered notices from Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service, Abbotsford Police Department, and others,\u201d the city said in a written statement.<\/p>\n
City staff encourage residents in the affected areas to plan ahead in case they need to evacuate.<\/p>\n
The statement continues, saying that the atmospheric river weather event will likely not be as damaging as the 2021 incident.<\/p>\n
However, according to provincial weather modelling, the aftermath is expected to be worse than the flooding in 2020.<\/p>\n
The Nooksack River poses one of many risks to property owners in the affected areas.<\/p>\n
Abbotsford officials say they will stay in contact with their counterparts in Whatcom County, Washington state, to monitor the water levels of the Nooksack River.<\/p>\n
The river \u201cis expected to overtop its banks this (Wednesday) afternoon, and overflow water will take approximately seven hours to cross the Canada\/U.S.A. border based on past experience,\u201d the city said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Mayor Ross Siemens says he is in touch with provincial government<\/p>\n
In an update, Abbotsford Mayor Ross Siemens says that the city and emergency staff are well prepared.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to assure you that we are in a place a much better place than we were in 2020-21,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cResidents should plan to stay informed by following updates at abbotsford.ca, and if they are in an evacuation area, to prepare a grab-and-go bag,\u201d Abbotsford\u2019s Fire Chief Eric Peterson added.<\/p>\n
Both say that the local officials are in touch with the provincial Minister of Emergency Management and Climate Readiness.<\/p>\n
The city also announced that Cole Road at the dike, between Wellsline Road and Vye Road, will be closed.<\/p>\n
Additionally, city staff ask the public to let officials know about clogged storm drains, localized flooding, flooded roadways, or overflowing ditches.<\/p>\n
Residents are urged to stay updated on the developing situation and contact the city at 604-853-5485 or 604-864-5552.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An atmospheric river soaking B.C.\u2019s south coast Wednesday has forced evacuation alerts and orders for multiple Fraser Valley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":338278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-338277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/338277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/338278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=338277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=338277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}