Abbotsford lifts all remaining evacuation orders after flooding

As the final evacuation orders and alerts were lifted, David Eby said the province can’t prevent future disasters without help from Ottawa.

One week after the start of an atmospheric river that overwhelmed the Nooksack River in Washington state and inundated Abbotsford’s Sumas Prairie, the last remaining evacuation orders in the city have been lifted.

As of Wednesday morning, there were still 11 properties on evacuation orders in the area, all of them located on Angus Campbell, Kenny and York roads.

In an update Wednesday afternoon, the City of Abbotsford announced it was downgrading the remaining evacuation orders to evacuation alerts.

Existing evacuation alerts—which had been in place for 474 properties on Sumas Prairie, many of them formerly subject to evacuation orders—were lifted entirely.

“As the floodwater has receded and the B.C. River Forecast Centre has downgraded the Sumas River from flood warning to high streamflow advisory, all residents in Sumas Prairie can safely return to their properties," the city said in its statement.

Authorities said they had conducted “rapid damage assessments” at all homes “observed to be impacted by the floodwaters” before lifting evacuation orders.

A total of 341 homes were assessed as “green,” meaning re-entry of the building is permitted, while 28 were assessed as “yellow,” meaning access is limited, subject to conditions.

“Assessments were done on the outer structure of homes only, not the inside or other buildings on the property, such as sheds or barns,” the city said. “Upon returning to their property, residents may want to have their home and other structures further assessed with support of their insurer. Resources and guidance for residents are available on the return home information page."

With all evacuation orders ended, the city said it would close its reception centre for evacuees at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

The city’s emergency operations centre remains activated and is monitoring river levels, dikes, roads and weather conditions, according to Wednesday’s update.