There were some 40 households evacuated from Sumas Prairie in Abbosford on Tuesday night, and the effort continued on Wednesday morning, as the threat of catastrophic flooding still loomed.
Trucks carrying search and rescue teams and pulling trailers with Zodiac boats, with team insignia from across the region, rolled down Whatcom Road. They splashed through roads under water, where abandoned vehicles were stranded, and headed into the flooded farmland.
Emergency responders said there are still people on Sumas Prairie who have not been evacuated.
Women trudging up the steep hill at Whatcom Road carrying pets in crates looked exhausted.
Candice Gibb explained her family has a three-acre hobby farm on Corbould Road with horses and goats. They worked hard to prepare for the worst, saving their livestock.
“We brought our animals up onto the mountainside, so they were out of the water, because our barn was flooding, and our basement is flooding,” she said.
“We wanted to make sure all our valuables were upstairs in the house, so that anything meaningful could be saved. So if it floods, we’ve got that, at least.”
She hasn’t seen the farm since Monday.
“We were staying with a friend on Sumas Prairie, and we haven’t been able to go home for a day and a half now, so we don’t know what our house situation is.”
Gibb has two daughters, 13 and nine, and said the girls “have handled it really well.”
“I was concerned about their emotions and that through this, but they’ve actually been amazing.”
She said she has seen flooding on Sumas Prairie in the past, but this was traumatic.
“I’ve seen fields look like lakes, but not the whole prairie.”
Wednesday morning she was feeling relieved, and the situation was improving.
“I’m feeling better now that we’re out, and the water is receding.”
READ ALSO: Evacuation order rescinded for Abbotsford’s Huntingdon area
READ ALSO: Sumas Prairie flooding remains ‘critical,’ Abbotsford mayor says 184 people rescued overnight
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